s: That length of convent wall across the way


s: Holds the trees safer, huddled more inside;


s: The last monk leaves the garden; days decrease,


s: Eh? the whole seems to fall into a shape


s: A twilight-piece.  Love, we are in God's hand.


s: How strange now looks the life he makes us lead;


s: So free we seem, so fettered fast we are!


s: This chamber for example--turn your head--


s: All that's behind us!  You don't understand


s: But you can hear at least when people speak:


s: And that cartoon, the second from the door


s: --It is the thing, Love! so such thing should be--


s: I do not boast, perhaps: yourself are judge,


s: Who listened to the Legate's talk last week,


s: And just as much they used to say in France.


s: No sketches first, no studies, that's long past;


s: I do what many dream of all their lives,


s: --Dream? strive to do, and agonize to do,


s: And fail in doing.  I could count twenty such


s: On twice your fingers, and not leave this town,


s: Who strive--you don't know how the others strive


s: To paint a little thing like that you smeared


s: Carelessly passing with your robes afloat,--


s: Yet do much less, so much less, Someone says,


s: (I know his name, no matter)--so much less!


s: Well, less is more, Lucrezia: I am judged.


s: There burns a truer light of God in them,


s: In their vexed beating stuffed and stopped-up brain,


s: Heart, or whate'er else, than goes on to prompt


s: This low-pulsed forthright craftsman's hand of mine.


s: Their works drop groundward, but themselves, I know,


s: Reach many a time a heaven that's shut to me,


s: Enter and take their place there sure enough,


s: Though they come back and cannot tell the world.


s: My works are nearer heaven, but I sit here.


s: The sudden blood of these men! at a word--


s: Praise them, it boils, or blame them, it boils too.


s: Know what I do, am unmoved by men's blame


s: Or their praise either.  Somebody remarks


s: Morello's outline there is wrongly traced,


s: His hue mistaken; what of that? or else,


s: Rightly traced and well ordered; what of that?


s: Speak as they please, what does the mountain care?


s: Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,


s: Or what's a heaven for?  All is silver-gray;


s: Placid and perfect with my art; the worse!


s: I know both what I want and what might gain;


s: Our head would have o'erlooked the world!" No doubt.


s: Yonder's a work now, of that famous youth


s: ('Tis copied, George Vasari sent it me.)


s: Pouring his soul, with kings and popes to see,


s: Reaching, that heaven might so replenish him,


s: Above and through his art--for it gives way;


s: That arm is wrongly put--and there again--


s: A fault to pardon in the drawing's lines,


s: Its body, so to speak: its soul is right,


s: He means right,--that, a child may understand.


s: Still, what an arm! and I could alter it:


s: But all the play, the insight and the stretch--


s: Out of me, out of me!  And wherefore out?


s: Had you enjoined them on me, given me soul,


s: We might have risen to Rafael, I and you!


s: Nay, Love, you did give all I asked, I think--


s: But had you--oh, with the same perfect brow,


s: And perfect eyes, and more than perfect mouth,


s: And the low voice my soul hears, as a bird


s: The fowler's pipe, and follows to the snare--


s: Had you, with these the same, but brought a mind!


s: Some women do so.  Had the mouth there urged,


s: "God and the glory! never care for gain.


s: The present by the future, what is that?


s: Live for fame, side by side with Agnolo!


s: Rafael is waiting: up to God, all three!"


s: I might have done it for you.  So it seems:


s: Beside, incentives come from the soul's self;


s: In this world, who can do a thing, will not;


s: And who would do it, cannot, I perceive:


s: Yet the will's somewhat--somewhat, too, the power--


s: And thus we half-men struggle.  At the end,


s: 'Tis safer for me, if the award be strict,


s: Poor this long while, despised, to speak the truth.


s: I dared not, do you know, leave home all day,


s: For fear of chancing on the Paris lords.


s: The best is when they pass and look aside;


s: But they speak sometimes; I must bear it all.


s: Well may they speak!  That Francis, that first time,


s: And that long festal year at Fontainebleau!


s: I surely then could sometimes leave the ground,


s: In that humane great monarch's golden look,--


s: Over his mouth's good mark that made the smile,


s: One arm about my shoulder, round my neck,


s: I painting proudly with his breath on me,


s: All his court round him, seeing with his eyes,


s: Such frank French eyes, and such a fire of souls


s: Profuse, my hand kept plying by those hearts,--


s: And, best of all, this, this, this face beyond,


s: This in the background, waiting on my work;


s: A good time, was it not, my kingly days?


s: And had you not grown restless... but I know--


s: 'Tis done and past; 'twas right, my instinct said;


s: Too live the life grew, golden and not gray,


s: And I'm the weak-eyed bat no sun should tempt


s: Out of the grange whose four walls make his world.


s: You called me, and I came home to your heart.


s: The triumph was,--to reach and stay there; since


s: I reached it ere the triumph, what is lost?


s: Let my hands frame your face in your hair's gold,


s: The Roman's is the better when you pray,


s: But still the other's Virgin was his wife--


s: Both pictures in your presence; clearer grows


s: For do you know, Lucrezia, as God lives,


s: To Rafael... I have known it all these years...


s: (When the young man was flaming out his thoughts


s: Friend, there's a certain sorry little scrub


s: Goes up and down our Florence, none cares how,


s: As you are, pricked on by your popes and kings,


s: Would bring the sweat into that brow of yours!"


s: To Rafael's!  And indeed the arm is wrong.


s: Give the chalk here--quick, thus the line should go!


s: Ay, but the soul! he's Rafael! rub it out!


s: Still, all I care for, if he spoke the truth,


s: Do you forget already words like those?)


s: If really there was such a chance, so lost,--


s: Is, whether you're--not grateful--but more pleased.


s: Well, let me think so.  And you smile indeed!


s: This hour has been an hour!  Another smile?


s: I should work better, do you comprehend?


s: I mean that I should earn more, give you more.


s: See, it is settled dusk now; there's a star;


s: Morello's gone, the watch-lights show the wall,


s: The cue-owls speak the name we call them by.


s: Come from the window, love,--come in, at last,


s: We built to be so gay with.  God is just.


s: King Francis may forgive me: oft at nights


s: When I look up from painting, eyes tired out,


s: The walls become illumined, brick from brick


s: Distinct, instead of mortar, fierce bright gold,


s: That gold of his I did cement them with!


s: Let us but love each other.  Must you go?


s: That Cousin here again? he waits outside?


s: Must see you--you, and not with me?  Those loans?


s: More gaming debts to pay? you smiled for that?


s: Well, let smiles buy me! have you more to spend?


s: While hand and eye and something of a heart


s: Are left me, work's my ware, and what's it worth?


s: How I could paint, were I but back in France,


s: One picture, just one more,--the Virgin's face,


s: Not yours this time!  I want you at my side


s: Judge all I do and tell you of its worth.


s: Will you?  To-morrow, satisfy your friend.


s: Finish the portrait out of hand--there, there,


s: If he demurs; the whole should prove enough


s: To pay for this same Cousin's freak.  Beside,


s: What's better and what's all I care about,


s: Get you the thirteen scudi for the ruff!


s: Love, does that please you?  Ah, but what does he,


s: The Cousin! what does he to please you more?


s: I am grown peaceful as old age to-night.


s: I regret little, I would change still less.


s: Since there my past life lies, why alter it?


s: I took his coin, was tempted and complied,


s: And built this house and sinned, and all is said.


s: How one gets rich!  Let each one bear his lot.


s: They were born poor, lived poor, and poor they died:


s: And not been paid profusely.  Some good son


s: Paint my two hundred pictures--let him try!


s: No doubt, there's something strikes a balance.  Yes,


s: You loved me quite enough, it seems to-night.


s: This must suffice me here.  What would one have?


s: In heaven, perhaps, new chances, one more chance--


s: To cover,--the three first without a wife,


s: While I have mine!  So--still they overcome


s: Because there's still Lucrezia,--as I choose.


s: Again the Cousin's whistle!  Go, my love.


s: That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,


s: That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf's hands


s: Worked busily a day, and there she stands.


s: Will't please you sit and look at her?  I said


s: Strangers like you that pictured countenance,


s: The depth and passion of its earnest glance,


s: But to myself they turned (since none puts by


s: The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)


s: And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,


s: How such a glance came there; so, not the first


s: Are you to turn and ask thus.  Sir, 'twas not


s: Her husband's presence only, called that spot


s: Fra Pandolf chanced to say, "Her mantle laps


s: Over my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint


s: Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff


s: Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough


s: For calling up that spot of joy.  She had


s: A heart--how shall I say?--too soon made glad,


s: Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er


s: She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.


s: Sir, 'twas all one!  My favor at her breast,


s: The dropping of the daylight in the West,


s: The bough of cherries some officious fool


s: Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule


s: She rode with round the terrace--all and each


s: Would draw from her alike the approving speech,


s: Or blush, at least. She thanked men,--good! but thanked


s: Somehow--I know not how--as if she ranked


s: My gift of a nine hundred-years-old name


s: With anybody's gift.  Who'd stoop to blame


s: This sort of trifling?  Even had you skill


s: In speech--(which I have not)--to make your will


s: Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this


s: Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,


s: Or there exceed the mark"--and if she let


s: Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,


s: --E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose


s: Never to stoop.  Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,


s: Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without


s: Much the same smile?  This grew; I gave commands;


s: Then all smiles stopped together.  There she stands


s: As if alive.  Will't please you rise?  We'll meet


s: The Count your master's known munificence


s: Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed


s: At starting, is my object.  Nay, we'll go


s: Together down, sir.  Notice Neptune, though,


s: Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!


s: Sank to their knees, transformed, transfixed,


s: And "Mercy!" cried each--"if I tell the truth


s: I thought, 'If, despite this lie, he strips


s: The mask from my soul with a kiss--I crawl


s: 'If Paradise-door prove locked?' smiled you.


s: Looked around and saw that the sky was clear,


s: Then laughed "Confess you believed us, Dear!"


s: "I saw through the joke!" the man replied


s: All's over, then: does truth sound bitter


s: Hark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter


s: And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,


s: To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?


s: Mere friends are we,--well, friends the merest


s: For each glance of the eye so bright and black,


s: Your voice, when you wish the snowdrops back,


s: Yet I will but say what mere friends say,


s: I will hold your hand but as long as all may,


s: When thou must home to shades of underground,


s: The beauteous spirits do engirt thee round,


s: To hear the stories of thy finished love


s: From that smooth tongue whose music hell can move;


s: Then wilt thou speak of banqueting delights,


s: Of masques and revels which sweet youth did make,


s: Of tourneys and great challenges of knights,


s: And all these triumphs for thy beauty's sake:


s: When thou hast told these honors done to thee,


s: Then tell, O tell, how thou didst murder me!


s: If I had chosen thee, thou shouldst have been


s: Chaste as the morning star, a saint, a queen,


s: Scarred by no wars, no violence of hate.


s: Thou shouldst have been of soul commensurate


s: And kind and just; and if of poor estate,


s: I would have had thee come of honored blood


s: And honorable nurture.  Thou shouldst bear


s: Sons to my pride and daughters to my heart,


s: And men should hold thee happy, wise, and good.


s: Lo, thou art none of this, but only fair,


s: Yet must I love thee, dear, and as thou art.


s: And dropped; and the thorns started through.


s: Bitter thorns to proclaim me your lover,


s: That bowed my heart like barley bending.


s: Those Graces were that seemed grim Fates;


s: With nearer love the sky leaned o'er me;


s: What boots it patch the goblet's splinters?


s: Whose treacherous crystal is but Winter's?


s: Their nectar crowns the lips of Patience;


s: And shuns the hands would seize upon her;


s: Just as you would have praised the Pope--


s: "Take care, my dear, you'll spoil my lace."


s: You call me "dearest."--All love's forms


s: As the place where the clustered palm-trees are,


s: Sweetened with syrop, tinctured with spice,


s: Creams, and cordials, and sugared dates,


s: And wines that are known to Eastern princes;


s: And all that the curious palate could wish,


s: And stains with the henna-plant the tips


s: Of her pointed nails, and bites her lips


s: Till they bloom again; but, alas, that rose


s: Runs in their veins, shines in their eyes.


s: She recks not that this hour will pass,--


s: Brief lights that make a little shining!


s: Has come to you the first, sweet-hearted!


s: Gropes, where its houses crouch and shiver.


s: Large red geraniums and tall pampas grass


s: Adorn the plots and mark the gravelled ways.


s: A private summer-house in white or green.


s: "You must choose between me and your cigar"--


s: Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,


s: For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.


s: We quarreled about Havanas--we fought o'er a good cheroot--


s: And I know she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.


s: Open the old cigar-box--let me consider a space,


s: In the soft blue veil of the vapor, musing on Maggie's face.


s: Maggie is pretty to look at--Maggie's a loving lass.


s: There's peace in a Laranaga, there's calm in a Henry Clay,


s: But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away--


s: Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown--


s: Maggie, my wife at fifty--gray and dour and old--


s: With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold.


s: The butt of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket--


s: Open the old cigar-box--let me consider awhile;


s: Here is a mild Manilla--there is a wifely smile.


s: Which is the better portion--bondage bought with a ring,


s: Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?


s: Counselors cunning and silent--comforters true and tried,


s: And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride.


s: Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,


s: Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close.


s: This will the fifty give me, asking naught in return,


s: With only a Suttee's passion--to do their duty and burn.


s: This will the fifty give me.  When they are spent and dead,


s: Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.


s: The furrows of far-off Java, the isles of the Spanish Main,


s: For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between


s: The wee little whimpering Love and the great god Nick o' Teen.


s: And I have been servant of Love for barely a twelvemonth clear,


s: But I have been Priest of Partagas a matter of seven year;


s: And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove,


s: Open the old cigar-box--let me consider anew--


s: Old friends, and who is Maggie, that I should abandon you?


s: A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke;


s: And a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a Smoke.


s: Light me another Cuba--I hold to my first-sworn vows,


s: If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for spouse!


s: In those fair eyes where all perfections keep.


s: But such a Woe (believe me) as wins more hearts


s: Than Mirth can do with her enticing parts.


s: And Passion, wise; Tears, a delightful thing;


s: Silence, beyond all speech, a wisdom rare:


s: And all things with so sweet a sadness move


s: As made my heart at once both grieve and love.


s: The world can show, leave off in time to grieve!


s: Enough, enough: your joyful look excels:


s: Which only breeds your beauty's overthrow.


s: Oh! the days are gone, when Beauty bright


s: When my dream of life, from morn till night,


s: But there's nothing half so sweet in life


s: No, there's nothing half so sweet in life


s: Though he win the wise, who frowned before,


s: And, at every close, she blushed to hear


s: Still it lingering haunts the greenest spot


s: 'Twas a light that ne'er can shine again


s: Oh! 'twas light that ne'er can shine again


s: While leaves are green, and skies are bright,


s: Frail as thy love, the flowers were dead


s: Sing the old song, amid the sounds dispersing


s: That burden treasured in your hearts too long;


s: Sing it, with voice low-breathed, but never name her:


s: She will not hear you, in her turrets nursing


s: High thoughts, too high to mate with mortal song--


s: Bend o'er her, gentle Heaven, but do not claim her!


s: In twilight caves, and secret lonelinesses,


s: She shades the bloom of her unearthly days;


s: And the soft winds alone have power to woo her:


s: Far off we catch the dark gleam of her tresses;


s: And wild birds haunt the wood-walks where she strays,


s: That Spirit charged to follow and defend her,--


s: He also, doubtless, suffers this love-pain;


s: And she, perhaps, is sad, hearing his sighing:


s: And yet that face is not so sad as tender;


s: Like some sweet singer's, when her sweetest strain


s: From the heaved heart is gradually dying!


s: I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way,


s: Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring;


s: Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay


s: Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling


s: Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,


s: But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream.


s: There grew pied wind-flowers and violets;


s: Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth,


s: The constellated flower that never sets;


s: Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth


s: The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets--


s: Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth--


s: Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears


s: When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.


s: And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,


s: Green cowbind and the moonlight-colored may,


s: And cherry-blossoms, and white cups whose wine


s: Was the bright dew yet drained not by the day;


s: With its dark buds and leaves wandering astray;


s: And flowers, azure, black, and streaked with gold,


s: And nearer to the river's trembling edge


s: There grew broad flag-flowers, purple pranked with white,


s: And floating water-lilies, broad and bright,


s: Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge


s: With moonlight beams of their own watery light;


s: And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green


s: As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.


s: Methought that of these visionary flowers


s: That the same hues which in their natural bowers


s: Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours


s: Within my hand;--and then, elate and gay,


s: I hastened to the spot whence I had come,


s: That I might there present it--O! to whom?


s: Love comes back to his vacant dwelling,--


s: With his great eyes sad, and his bosom swelling.


s: He makes as though in our arms repelling,


s: Ah, who shall keep us from over-spelling


s: E'en as we doubt in our hearts once more,


s: With a rush of tears to our eyelids welling,


s: Love not, love not, ye hapless sons of clay!


s: Hope's gayest wreaths are made of earthly flowers--


s: Things that are made to fade and fall away,


s: When they have blossomed but a few short hours.


s: Love not, love not!  The thing you love may die--


s: May perish from the gay and gladsome earth;


s: The silent stars, the blue and smiling sky,


s: Beam on its grave as once upon its birth.


s: Love not, love not!  The thing you love may change,


s: The kindly beaming eye grow cold and strange;


s: The heart still warmly beat, yet not be true.


s: Love not, love not!  O warning vainly said


s: In present years, as in the years gone by!


s: Love flings a halo round the dear one's head,


s: Faultless, immortal--till they change or die!


s: To pause and look back when thou hearest


s: And heaven, that made thee all blooming,


s: Oh, wilt thou have my hand, Dear, to lie along in thine?


s: As a little stone in a running stream, it seems to lie and pine.


s: Now drop the poor pale hand, Dear, unfit to plight with thine.


s: Oh, wilt thou have my cheek, Dear, drawn closer to thine own?


s: My cheek is white, my check is worn, by many a tear run down.


s: Now leave a little space, Dear, lest it should wet thine own.


s: Oh, must thou have my soul, Dear, commingled with thy soul?--


s: Red grows the cheek, and warm the hand; the part is in the whole;


s: Mariana in the moated grange.--Measure For Measure


s: The broken sheds looked sad and strange:


s: The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse


s: Her sense; but most she loathed the hour


s: Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea;


s: The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape,


s: With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape;


s: But O too fond, when have I answered thee?


s: Ask me no more: what answer should I give?


s: Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die!


s: Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live;


s: Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are sealed;


s: I strove against the stream and all in vain;


s: Let the great river take me to the main.


s: No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield;


s: Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails,


s: Since this was written and needs must be--


s: --And this beside, if you will not blame;


s: Your leave for one more last ride with me.


s: With life or death in the balance: right!


s: Who knows but the world may end to-night?


s: Cloud, sunset, moonrise, star-shine too,


s: Till flesh must fade for heaven was here!--


s: Thus leant she and lingered-joy and fear!


s: Smoothed itself out, a long-cramped scroll


s: Where had I been now if the worst befell?


s: This present of theirs with the hopeful past!


s: I hoped she would love me; here we ride.


s: What act proved all its thought had been?


s: They scratch his name on the Abbey-stones.


s: And place them in rhyme so, side by side.


s: 'Tis something, nay 'tis much: but then,


s: Are you--poor, sick, old ere your time--


s: Earth being so good, would heaven seem best?


s: Now, heaven and she are beyond this ride.


s: Whither life's flower is first discerned,


s: You thumbed, thrust, patted, and polished,


s: I chirped, cheeped, trilled, and twittered,


s: Cap and blouse--nay, a bit of beard too;


s: Her, piano, and long tunes and short tunes"?


s: Starved, feasted, despaired,--been happy.


s: There, branching from the brickwork's cleft,


s: Five beetles,--blind and green they grope


s: Such life here, through such lengths of hours,


s: Nor yours, nor mine--nor slave nor free!


s: Where does the fault lie?  What the core


s: At your soul's springs,--your part, my part


s: Catch your soul's warmth,--I pluck the rose


s: And love it more than tongue can speak--


s: She will not give me heaven?  'Tis well!


s: In a dream that loved one's face meets mine,


s: But the house is narrow, the place is bleak


s: With a furtive ear, if I strive to speak,


s: With a hostile eye at my flushing cheek,


s: With a malice that marks each word, each sign!


s: Through the magic of May to herself indeed!


s: Outside are the storms and strangers: we--


s: Down the stream of the soft spring breeze;


s: On the sward of some sheep-trimmed down,


s: With our limbs at rest on the quiet earth's breast,


s: And follow Death the way my fancies went


s: Year after fading year, the last mad sky


s: For though my heart went doubting through the night,


s: With many a backward glance at heaven's face,


s: I shall not grieve because the girls were fair


s: And kinder than the world, nor shall I weep


s: Because with crying lips and clinging hair


s: For lacking this I might not yet have known


s: How high the heart could climb, or waking seen


s: The mountains bare their silver breasts of stone


s: Though it were all a sin, within the mirth


s: Our songs, in her who scattered on the earth


s: And though she held some dream that was not ours


s: In some far place that was not for our feet,


s: Where blew across the gladder, madder flowers


s: Ah! who shall hearten when the music stops,


s: For joy of silence?  While they dreamed above


s: She showed me love upon the mountain tops


s: And while the wise found heaven with their charts


s: And lore of souls, she made an earth for me


s: More sweet than all, and from our beating hearts


s: For hours and treasure lost, but with my breath


s: For lo! this place is fair, and losing all


s: That I have won and dreamed beneath her kiss,


s: I would not see the light of morning fall


s: Just feel the Father's arms, wherewith they both are blessed,


s: O then my heart!  O then my useless heart!


s: A stone remote in some bleak gully of the hills!


s: And she looked like a queen in a book that night,


s: With the wreath of pearl in her raven hair,


s: And the brooch on her breast, so bright.


s: The best, to my taste, is the Trovatore;


s: The moon on the tower slept soft as snow:


s: And who was not thrilled in the strangest way,


s: As we heard him sing, while the gas burned low,


s: Looked grave, as if he had just then seen


s: The Empress, too, had a tear in her eye.


s: You'd have said that her fancy had gone back again,


s: Well! there in our front-row box we sat,


s: And both were silent, and both were sad.


s: Like a queen she leaned on her full white arm,


s: I have not a doubt she was thinking then


s: Of her former lord, good soul that he was!


s: Who died the richest and roundest of men,


s: I hope that, to get to the kingdom of heaven,


s: Through a needle's eye he had not to pass.


s: Meanwhile, I was thinking of my first love,


s: As I had not been thinking of aught for years,


s: I thought of the dress that she wore last time,


s: When we stood, 'neath the cypress-trees, together,


s: Of that muslin dress (for the eve was hot),


s: And her warm white neck in its golden chain,


s: And her full, soft hair, just tied in a knot,


s: And the jasmine-flower in her fair young breast,


s: (O the faint, sweet smell of that jasmine-flower!)


s: And the one bird singing alone to his nest,


s: I thought of our little quarrels and strife,


s: And the letter that brought me back my ring.


s: And it all seemed then, in the waste of life,


s: For I thought of her grave below the hill,


s: Which the sentinel cypress-tree stands over;


s: And I thought... "were she only living still,


s: And I swear, as I thought of her thus, in that hour,


s: And of how, after all, old things were best,


s: That I smelt the smell of that jasmine-flower


s: It smelt so faint, and it smelt so sweet,


s: Like the scent that steals from the crumbling sheet


s: And I turned, and looked.  She was sitting there


s: In a dim box, over the stage; and dressed


s: In that muslin dress with that full soft hair,


s: And the glittering horseshoe curved between:--


s: From my bride-betrothed, with her raven hair,


s: To my early love, with her eyes downcast,


s: (In short from the Future back to the Past).


s: One moment I looked.  Then I stole to the door,


s: I traversed the passage; and down at her side


s: My thinking of her, or the music's strain,


s: Or something which never will be expressed,


s: Had brought her back from the grave again,


s: But she loves me now, and she loved me then!


s: And the very first word that her sweet lips said,


s: She is wealthy, and young, and handsome still,


s: And but for her... well, we'll let that pass,


s: With her primrose face: for old things are best,


s: And the flower in her bosom, I prize it above


s: And Love must cling where it can, I say:


s: And I think, in the lives of most women and men,


s: There's a moment when all would go smooth and even,


s: That voice rang out from the donjon tower,


s: I think thou waitest, Love, beyond the Gate--


s: Eager, with wind-stirred ripples in thy hair;


s: I have not found thee, and the hour is late,


s: Far have I sought, and flung my wealth of years


s: Like a young traveler, gay at careless inns--


s: See how the wine-stain whitens 'neath the tears


s: And wilt thou know me, Love, with bended back,


s: Or wilt thou scorn me, in so drear a guise?


s: Thy dream--and dross of sin.... O, dim the fields--


s: Yet I await what hope the turning yields


s: Oh, we have wakened, Sweet, and had our birth,


s: And we have toiled and smiled and kept the light,


s: Dark hills whose heath-bloom feeds no bee,


s: Once seen, once kissed, once reft from me


s: I fain would pause along the downward way,


s: While, Sweet! our eyes with tender tears are wet:


s: All for love's sake, for love that cannot tire;


s: Though fervid youth be dead, with youth's desire,


s: A little while I fain would linger here:


s: Behold! who knows what strange, mysterious bars


s: 'Twixt souls that love may rise in other stars?


s: Nor can love deem the face of death is fair:


s: A little while I still would linger here.


s: A little while I yearn to hold thee fast,


s: Hand locked in hand, and loyal heart to heart;


s: (O pitying Christ! those woeful words, "We part!")


s: So, ere the darkness fall, the light be past,


s: A little while I fain would hold thee fast.


s: A little while, when light and twilight meet,--


s: Behind, our broken years; before, the deep


s: Weird wonder of the last unfathomed sleep,--


s: A little while I still would clasp thee, Sweet,


s: A little while, when night and twilight meet.


s: A little while I fain would linger here;


s: Behold! who knows what soul-dividing bars


s: Earth's faithful loves may part in other stars?


s: Will you change every flower that grows,


s: The bird seemed true the summer through,


s: The grass, the leaves, the earth, the dew,


s: These are yours, in place of gladness,--


s: What have the Gods done with us? what with me,


s: What with my love?  They have shown me fates and fears,


s: Harsh springs, and fountains bitterer than the sea,


s: Grief a fixed star, and joy a vane that veers,


s: With her, my Love,--with her have they done well?


s: But who shall answer for her? who shall tell


s: Sweet things or sad, such things as no man hears?


s: May no tears fall, if no tears ever fell,


s: From eyes more dear to me than starriest spheres,


s: But if tears ever touched, for any grief,


s: Those eyelids folded like a white-rose leaf,


s: Deep double shells where through the eye-flower peers,


s: Let them weep once more only, sweet and brief,


s: Brief tears and bright, for one who gave her tears


s: Say, is it day, is it dusk in thy bower,


s: Thou whom I long for, who longest for me?


s: Oh! be it light, be it night, 'tis Love's hour,


s: Love's that is fettered as Love's that is free.


s: Free Love has leaped to that innermost chamber,


s: Oh! the last time, and the hundred before:


s: Fettered Love, motionless, can but remember,


s: Yet something that sighs from him passes the door.


s: Nay, but my heart when it flies to thy bower,


s: What does it find there that knows it again?


s: There it must droop like a shower-beaten flower,


s: Red at the rent core and dark with the rain.


s: Ah! yet what shelter is still shed above it,--


s: What waters still image its leaves torn apart?


s: Thy soul is the shade that clings round it to love it,


s: And tears are its mirror deep down in thy heart.


s: What were my prize, could I enter thy bower,


s: Large lovely arms and a neck like a tower,


s: Bosom then heaving that now lies forlorn.


s: Kindled with love-breath, (the sun's kiss is colder!)


s: Thy sweetness all near me, so distant to-day;


s: My hand round thy neck and thy hand on my shoulder,


s: My mouth to thy mouth as the world melts away.


s: What is it keeps me afar from thy bower,--


s: My spirit, my body, so fain to be there?


s: Waters engulfing or fires that devour?--


s: Earth heaped against me or death in the air?


s: Nay, but in day-dreams, for terror, for pity,


s: The trees wave their heads with an omen to tell;


s: Nay, but in night-dreams, throughout the dark city,


s: The hours, clashed together, lose count in the bell.


s: One day when all days are one day to me?--


s: Thinking, "I stirred not, and yet had the power,"


s: Yearning, "Ah God, if again it might be!"


s: Peace, peace! such a small lamp illumes, on this highway,


s: So dimly so few steps in front of my feet,--


s: Yet shows me that her way is parted from my way....


s: Out of sight, beyond light, at what goal may we meet?


s: Singing, she wrought, and her merry glee


s: But when she glanced to the far-off town,


s: And a nameless longing filled her breast,--


s: For something better than she had known.


s: And asked a draught from the spring that flowed


s: She stooped where the cool spring bubbled up,


s: And blushed as she gave it, looking down


s: On her feet so bare, and her tattered gown.


s: "Thanks!" said the Judge; "a sweeter draught


s: He spoke of the grass and flowers and trees,


s: Of the singing birds and the humming bees;


s: Then talked of the haying, and wondered whether


s: The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.


s: "My father should wear a broadcloth coat;


s: And the baby should have a new toy each day.


s: "And I'd feed the hungry and clothe the poor,


s: And all should bless me who left our door."


s: The Judge looked back as he climbed the hill,


s: "No doubtful balance of rights and wrongs,


s: But he thought of his sisters, proud and cold,


s: And his mother, vain of her rank and gold.


s: So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on,


s: When he hummed in court an old love-tune;


s: And the young girl mused beside the well


s: Till the rain on the unraked clover fell.


s: Yet oft, in his marble hearth's bright glow,


s: Oft, when the wine in his glass was red,


s: And closed his eyes on his garnished rooms


s: And the proud man sighed, with a secret pain,


s: Where the barefoot maiden raked her hay."


s: And many children played round her door.


s: But care and sorrow, and childbirth pain,


s: And she heard the little spring brook fall


s: She felt his pleased eyes read her face.


s: Then she took up her burden of life again,


s: The saddest are these: "It might have been!"


s: Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies


s: The few strange words my lips had taught


s: Their gentler signs, which often brought


s: All, all returned, more sweet, more fair;


s: When years have clothed the line in moss


s: And changed the dreams of my heart and head;


s: And they pity the tears on my sleeping face


s: Rose o' the World, they have words galore,


s: And wide's the swing of my mother's door:


s: And soft they speak of my darkened eyes--


s: But what do they know, who are all so wise?


s: Worth all shy prayers that the colleens say


s: On the night that darkens the wedding-day.


s: When he might dream of your face instead?


s: Might go to the grave with the blessed pain


s: Rose o' the World, they may talk their fill,


s: For dreams are good, and my life stands still


s: While their lives' red ashes the gossips stir;


s: What hast thou done!  What hast thou done!"


s: Then when he comes to me, I must sit quiet:


s: Shall we meet no more, my love, at the binding of the sheaves,


s: In the happy harvest-fields, as the sun sinks low,


s: When the orchard paths are dim with the drift of fallen leaves,


s: And the reapers sing together, in the mellow, misty eves:


s: O, happy are the apples when the south winds blow!


s: Love met us in the orchard, ere the corn had gathered plume,--


s: Sweet as summer days that die when the months are in the bloom,


s: Sweet as summer days that die, leafing sweeter each to each,--


s: All the heart was full of feeling: love had ripened into speech,


s: Like the sap that turns to nectar in the velvet of the peach,


s: In the happy harvest-fields as the sun sinks low.


s: Sweet as summer days that die at the ripening of the corn,--


s: Sweet as lovers' fickle oaths, sworn to faithless maids forsworn,


s: Over happy harvest-fields as the sun sinks low.


s: Love left us at the dying of the mellow autumn eves,--


s: Then the reapers gather home, from the gray and misty meres;--


s: Then the reapers gather home, and they bear upon their spears,


s: One whose face is like the moon, fallen gray among the spheres,


s: With the daylight's curse upon it, as the sun sinks low.


s: Faint as far-off bugles blowing, soft and low the reapers sung;--


s: Sweet as summer in the blood, when the heart is ripe and young,


s: Love is sweetest in the dying, like the sheaves he lies among,


s: If my face could only promise that its color would remain;


s: If my heart were only certain it would hide the moment's pain;


s: I would meet you and would greet you in the old familiar tone,


s: And naught should ever show you the wrong that you have done.


s: If my trembling hand were steady, if my smiles had not all fled;


s: If my eyes spoke not so plainly of the tears they often shed;


s: I would meet you and would greet you at the old trysting place,


s: And perchance you'd deem me happy if you met me face to face.


s: If the melody of Springtime awoke no wild refrain,


s: If the Autumn's gold burthen awoke no living pain,


s: I would meet you and would greet you, as years ago we met,


s: Before our hearts were shipwrecked on the ocean of regret.


s: If my woman's soul were stronger, if my heart were not so true,


s: I should long have ceased remembering the love I had for you;


s: But I dare not meet or greet you, in the old familiar way,


s: Until we meet in Heaven, where all tears have passed away.


s: "I know," it whistled, "where thou hast been."


s: A faint voice fell from the stars above--


s: "Thou? whom we lighted to shrines of Love!"


s: For some one had left white lilac there.


s: The flower you loved, in times that were.


s: Grant me one hour of all mine hours, and let me see for a token


s: Before the ruining waters fall and my life be carried under,


s: And Thine anger cleave me through, as a child cuts down a flower,


s: Last night, ah, yesternight, betwixt her lips and mine


s: There fell thy shadow, Cynara! thy breath was shed


s: Upon my soul between the kisses and the wine;


s: And I was desolate and sick of an old passion,


s: I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.


s: All night upon mine heart I felt her warm heart beat,


s: Night-long within mine arms in love and sleep she lay;


s: Surely the kisses of her bought red mouth were sweet;


s: But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,


s: When I awoke and found the dawn was gray:


s: I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,


s: Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,


s: Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind;


s: Yea, all the time, because the dance was long:


s: I cried for madder music and for stronger wine,


s: But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire,


s: Then falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine;


s: And I am desolate and sick of an old passion,


s: Why is there in the least touch of her hands


s: More grace than other women's lips bestow,


s: Of flesh to flesh, wherever love may go?


s: Why choose vain grief and heavy-hearted hours


s: For her lost voice, and dear remembered hair,


s: If love may cull his honey from all flowers,


s: And girls grow thick as violets, everywhere?


s: Nay!  She is gone, and all things fall apart;


s: Or she is cold, and vainly have we prayed;


s: And broken is the summer's splendid heart,


s: And hope within a deep, dark grave is laid.


s: As man aspires and falls, yet a soul springs


s: So love that flesh enthralls, shall rise on wings


s: Soul-centered, when the rule of flesh is past.


s: Then, most High Love, or wreathed with myrtle sprays,


s: Or crownless and forlorn, nor less a star,


s: Thee may I serve and follow all my days,


s: Whose thorns are sweet as never roses are!


s: We thought that love could never change.


s: There is an air for which I would disown


s: Mozart's, Rossini's, Weber's melodies,--


s: A sweet sad air that languishes and sighs,


s: And keeps its secret charm for me alone.


s: Whene'er I hear that music vague and old,


s: Two hundred years are mist that rolls away;


s: The thirteenth Louis reigns, and I behold


s: An old red castle, strong with stony towers,


s: And windows gay with many-colored glass;


s: Wide plains, and rivers flowing among flowers,


s: That bathe the castle basement as they pass.


s: In antique weed, with dark eyes and gold hair,


s: A lady looks forth from her window high;


s: It may be that I knew and found her fair,


s: In some forgotten life, long time gone by.


s: Waves and clouds and the night will cover


s: Sobbing waves, and the death within them,


s: Sweet as the lips that once you pressed--


s: Pray that your hopeless heart may win them!


s: Set your face to the stars, fond lover,--


s: Calm, and silent, and bright, and true!--


s: And sweet for you will the murmuring surges


s: There, with the drifting cloud, your place is,


s: After the May time and after the June time


s: Cometh the round world's royal noon time,


s: When the sun, like an eye that never closes,


s: And the winds are still, and the crimson roses


s: When, over the stars of Pride and Reason,


s: Like a great red ball in my bosom burning


s: With fires that nothing can quench or tame,


s: It glows till my heart itself seems turning


s: The hopes half shy and the sighs all tender,


s: From the hills of Doubt no winds are blowing,


s: From the isles of Pain no breeze is sent,--


s: For the Autumn must come with its mournful story.


s: And Love's midsummer will fade too soon.


s: Through snow and blossom and sun and rain:


s: Sweet love has twined his fingers in my hair,


s: And laid his hand across my wondering eyes.


s: If in the outer world be sunset or sunrise?


s: Sweet Love has laid his hand across my eyes.


s: Sweet Love has loosed his fingers from my hair,


s: His lifted hand has left my eyelids wet.


s: Nor see but in my ruined heart, and there


s: If in the outer world be sunrise or sunset?


s: Sweet Love has freed my eyes, but they are wet.


s: An' 'tis like there's wan, I'm thinkin',


s: Och wet, wet tears!--ay, troth, 'tis years


s: How different, Dear, this world had been


s: Shall softer than the dawn come stealing,


s: When I am old, and think of the old days,


s: And warm my hands before a little blaze,


s: Having forgotten love, hope, fear, desire,


s: I shall see, smiling out of the pale fire,


s: That stealthy ardency, where passionate thought


s: Burns inward, a revealing flame, and glows


s: As pictures do, remembered, some old dream.


s: And I shall think of you as something strange,


s: And beautiful, and full of helpless change,


s: But you, I loved, will have become a part


s: When you are no more young, and I am old.


s: Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;


s: She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.


s: She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;


s: But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.


s: In a field by the river my love and I did stand,


s: And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.


s: She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;


s: But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.


s: Love has gone and left me, and the days are all alike.


s: Eat I must, and sleep I will--and would that night were here!


s: But ah, to lie awake and hear the slow hours strike!


s: Would that it were day again, with twilight near!


s: Love has gone and left me, and I don't know what to do;


s: This or that or what you will is all the same to me;


s: But all the things that I begin I leave before I'm through--


s: There's little use in anything as far as I can see.


s: Love has gone and left me, and the neighbors knock and borrow,


s: And life goes on forever like the gnawing of a mouse.


s: And to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow


s: There's this little street and this little house.


s: O, stay and hear; your true Love's coming,


s: Only she sings not, while my sorrows can


s: Breathe forth such notes as fit a dying swan.


s: Those happy creatures are, that know not yet


s: I'd learn; and try what further art could do


s: I still might love, forget, and have her here.


s: For then no future time might hap to know


s: That she deserved; or I did love her so.


s: More grief in parting, but grow old and die.


s: Pity from blustering wind or swallowing wave.


s: Unseen, unknown; and greet as Angels greet.


s: In Heaven, their earthy bodies left behind.


s: Where thou hadst placed such power before,


s: Bring floods of grief to Whitehall stairs--


s: From men who've left their hearts behind?--


s: To you, when all those tunes were played--


s: Where first my shipwrecked heart was lost,


s: Tell me, ye jovial sailors, tell me true


s: If my sweet William sails among the crew."


s: The cord slides swiftly through his glowing hands,


s: And, quick as lightning, on the deck he stands.


s: If chance his mate's shrill call he hear,


s: The noblest captain in the British fleet


s: Might envy William's lip those kisses sweet.


s: Change as ye list, ye winds; my heart shall be


s: The faithful compass that still points to thee.


s: Who tempt with doubts thy constant mind:


s: Yes, yes, believe them when they tell thee so,


s: Wakes in my soul some charm of lovely Sue.


s: Though cannons roar, yet, safe from harms,


s: Love turns aside the balls that round me fly,


s: Lest precious tears should drop from Susan's eye."


s: They kissed, she sighed, he hung his head.


s: Her lessening boat unwilling rows to land;


s: "Adieu!" she cries; and waved her lily hand.


s: Oh! who is that poor foreigner that lately came to town,


s: And like a ghost that cannot rest still wanders up and down?


s: A poor, unhappy Scottish youth;--if more you wish to know.


s: His heart is breaking all for love of Irish Molly O!


s: She's modest, mild, and beautiful, the fairest I have known--


s: The primrose of Ireland--all blooming here alone--


s: The primrose of Ireland, for wheresoe'er I go,


s: The only one entices me is Irish Molly O!


s: When Molly's father heard of it, a solemn oath he swore,


s: That if she'd wed a foreigner he'd never see her more.


s: He sent for young MacDonald and he plainly told him so--


s: "I'll never give to such as you my Irish Molly O!"


s: MacDonald heard the heavy news, and grievously did say--


s: "Farewell, my lovely Molly, since I'm banished far away,


s: A poor forlorn pilgrim I must wander to and fro,


s: And all for the sake of my Irish Molly O!


s: "There is a rose in Ireland, I thought it would be mine:


s: But now that she is lost to me, I must for ever pine,


s: Till death shall come to comfort me, for to the grave I'll go,


s: "And now that I am dying, this one request I crave,


s: To place a marble tombstone above my humble grave!


s: And on the stone these simple words I'd have engraven so--


s: "'MacDonald lost his life for love of Irish Molly O!'"


s: There will I tell the trees an' flooers,


s: Farewell to Lochaber, an' farewell my Jean,


s: Where heartsome wi' thee I hae mony day been;


s: These tears that I shed, they are a' for my dear,


s: An' no for the dangers attending on weir,


s: Though borne on rough seas to a far bloody shore,


s: Though hurricanes rise, an' rise every wind,


s: They'll ne'er mak' a tempest like that in my mind;


s: Though loudest o' thunders on louder waves roar,


s: That's naething like leaving my love on the shore.


s: To leave thee behind me my heart is sair pained;


s: By ease that's inglorious no fame can be gained;


s: An' beauty an' love's the reward o' the brave,


s: An' I must deserve it before I can crave.


s: Then glory, my Jeanie, maun plead my excuse;


s: Since honor commands me, how can I refuse?


s: Without it I ne'er can have merit for thee,


s: An' without thy favor I'd better not be,


s: I gae, then, my lass, to win honor an' fame,


s: An' if I should luck to come gloriously hame,


s: I'll bring a heart to thee wi' love running o'er,


s: An' then I'll leave thee an' Lochaber no more.


s: Strain every nerve, stretch every plume,


s: "For why," she cries, "sit still and weep,


s: My heart (with thoughts of thee, my dear!


s: Blow high, blow low! let tempest tear....


s: And drink their sweethearts and their wives),


s: Now in her green mantle blithe Nature arrays,


s: An' listens the lambkins that bleat o'er the braes,


s: While birds warble welcome in ilka green shaw;


s: But to me it's delightless--my Nannie's awa'.


s: The snaw-drap an' primrose our woodlands adorn,


s: An' violets bathe in the weet o' the morn;


s: They pain my sad bosom, sae sweetly they blaw,


s: They mind me o' Nannie--an' Nannie's awa'.


s: Thou laverock that springs frae the dews of the lawn,


s: The shepherd to warn o' the gray-breaking dawn,


s: An' thou mellow mavis that hails the night-fa',


s: Come, autumn, sae pensive, in yellow an' gray,


s: An' soothe me wi' tidings o' Nature's decay;


s: The dark, dreary winter, an' wild-driving snaw


s: Alane can delight me--now Nannie's awa'.


s: Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,


s: Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!


s: Than kingly robes, and crowns and globes,


s: Heaven gave me more,--it made thee mine.


s: It breaks my bliss,--it breaks my heart.


s: There's wild woods grow, and rivers row,


s: There's not a bonnie flower that springs


s: The first two stanzas by Robert Burns [1759-1796]


s: As blithe's yon lightsome lamb that plays


s: Would that breast were bared before thee


s: Would that breast, by thee glanced over,


s: Though the world for this commend thee,--


s: Think of him whose prayer shall bless thee,


s: Seared in heart, and lone, and blighted,


s: Zoe mou, sas agapo.  (My life, I love you.)


s: One soul, one heart, sworn ne'er to part,--


s: Sweet time, sad time!--twa bairns at schule,


s: And tones, and looks, and smiles were shed,


s: Cheek touchin' cheek, loof locked in loof,


s: When baith bent doun owre ae braid page,


s: Whene'er the schule-weans, laughin', said,


s: The fount that first burst frae this heart,


s: The smile that blessed one lover's heart


s: God be with thee, my beloved,--God be with thee!


s: Moor and pleasance all around thee and beneath thee


s: Can I teach thee, my beloved,--can I teach thee?


s: The wisdom, poor of all that could enrich thee;


s: May God teach thee, my beloved,--may God teach thee!


s: Can I bless thee, my beloved,--can I bless thee?


s: What flowers grow in my field wherewith to dress thee?


s: May God bless thee, my beloved,--may God bless thee!


s: Can I love thee, my beloved,--can I love thee?


s: When strong as death I fain would watch above thee?


s: May God love thee, my beloved,--may God love thee!


s: I do not love thee!--no!  I do not love thee!


s: And envy even the bright blue sky above thee,


s: Whose quiet stars may see thee and be glad.


s: I do not love thee!--yet, I know not why,


s: Whate'er thou dost seems still well done, to me:


s: That those I do love are not more like thee!


s: I do not love thee!--yet, when thou art gone,


s: I hate the sound (though those who speak be near)


s: Which breaks the lingering echo of the tone


s: I do not love thee!--yet thy speaking eyes,


s: With their deep, bright, and most expressive blue,


s: Between me and the midnight heaven arise,


s: Others will scarcely trust my candid heart;


s: And oft I catch them smiling as they pass,


s: Because they see me gazing where thou art.


s: Cool grows the sick and feverish calm,--


s: O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South,


s: Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,


s: And tell her, tell her what I tell to thee.


s: O, tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each,


s: That bright and fierce and fickle is the South,


s: And dark and true and tender is the North.


s: O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light


s: Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill,


s: And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.


s: O, were I thou that she might take me in,


s: Would rock the snowy cradle till I died!


s: Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love,


s: To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?


s: O, tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is flown;


s: Say to her, I do but wanton in the South,


s: But in the North long since my nest is made.


s: O, tell her, brief is life but love is long,


s: And brief the sun of summer in the North,


s: And brief the moon of beauty in the South.


s: O Swallow, flying from the golden woods,


s: Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine,


s: And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee.


s: Arm in my arm, such a short while since:


s: Hinders the hinges and makes them wince!


s: She must have reached this shrub ere she turned,


s: As back with that murmur the wicket swung;


s: For she laid the poor snail, my chance foot spurned,


s: She went while her robe's edge brushed the box:


s: And here she paused in her gracious talk


s: To point me a moth on the milk-white phlox.


s: I will never think that she passed you by!


s: But yonder see where the rock-plants lie!


s: This flower she stopped at, finger on lip,


s: Stooped over, in doubt, as settling its claim;


s: Till she gave me, with pride to make no slip,


s: I must learn Spanish, one of these days,


s: But do not detain me now; for she lingers


s: Flower, you Spaniard, look that you grow not,


s: Bud, if I kiss you, 'tis that you blow not,


s: For while it pouts, her fingers wrestle,


s: Till round they turn, and down they nestle--


s: Is there no method to tell her in Spanish


s: June's twice June since she breathed it with me?


s: Come, bud, show me the least of her traces,


s: --Ah, you may flout and turn up your faces,--


s: And then their endless bounds they know.


s: Stop!--not to me, at this bitter departing,


s: Fresh be the wound, still-renewed be its smarting,


s: But, if the steadfast commandment of Nature


s: Wills that remembrance should always decay--


s: If the loved form and the deep-cherished feature


s: Must, when unseen, from the soul fade away--


s: Fled, fled at once, be all vestige of thee!


s: Deep be the darkness and still be the slumber--


s: Dead be the past and its phantoms to me!


s: Then, when we meet, and thy look strays towards me,


s: Scanning my face and the changes wrought there:


s: Who, let me say, is this stranger regards me,


s: With the gray eyes, and the lovely brown hair?


s: Crowds of grasshoppers skip at our feet,


s: Crowds of larks at their matins hang over,


s: Flusheth the rise with her purple favor,


s: And short dry grass under foot is brown,


s: But one little streak at a distance lieth


s: Hey the green ribbon that showed so fair!


s: Hey the green ribbon! we kneeled beside it,


s: Drop over drop there filtered and slided


s: A tiny bright beck that trickled between.


s: Hand in hand, while the sun peered over,


s: We lapped the grass on that youngling spring;


s: Swept back its rushes, smoothed its clover,


s: Forward, backward; lo their dark shadows


s: Flit on the beck; for her long grass parteth


s: As hair from a maid's bright eyes blown back:


s: His flattering smile on her wayward track.


s: Sing on! we sing in the glorious weather


s: So narrow, in sooth, that still together


s: The beck grows wider, the hands must sever.


s: He prays, "Come over,"--I may not follow;


s: We speak, we laugh, but with voices hollow;


s: Our hands are hanging, our hearts are numb.


s: Keeping sweet time to the air she sings.


s: A little pain when the beck grows wider;


s: "Cross to me now; for her wavelets swell";


s: "I may not cross,"--and the voice beside her


s: "Come to me now, for the west is burning;


s: Then cries of pain, and arms outreaching,--


s: The beck grows wider and swift and deep:


s: The loud beck drowns them: we walk, and weep.


s: The desert heavens have felt her sadness;


s: Her earth will weep her some dewy tears;


s: The wild beck ends her tune of gladness,


s: With the moon's own sadness in our faces,


s: Bare grassy slopes, where kids are tethered,


s: Round valleys like nests all ferny-lined,


s: Round hills, with fluttering tree-tops feathered,


s: Swell high in their freckled robes behind.


s: A rose-flush tender, a thrill, a quiver,


s: When golden gleams to the tree-tops glide;


s: A flashing edge for the milk-white river,


s: The beck, a river--with still sleek tide.


s: Broad and white, and polished as silver,


s: And wave their hands for a mute farewell.


s: The tiny green ribbon that showed so fair.


s: While, O my heart! as white sails shiver,


s: And clouds are passing, and banks stretch wide,


s: How hard to follow, with lips that quiver,


s: And yet I know past all doubting, truly,--


s: A knowledge greater than grief can dim,--


s: I know, as he loved, he will love me duly,--


s: Yea, better, e'en better than I love him.


s: I say, "Thy breadth and thy depth forever


s: Are bridged by his thoughts that cross to me."


s: And still the May-day flowers make sweet


s: With all my will, but much against my heart,


s: Our solace is, the sad road lies so clear.


s: To see the peach-bloom come in evening skies,


s: And even through faith of still averted feet,


s: The bitter journey to the bourne so sweet


s: Seasoning the termless feast of our content


s: It was not like your great and gracious ways!


s: Do you, that have naught other to lament,


s: I knew, indeed, that you were parting soon;


s: And so we sate, within the low sun's rays,


s: You whispering to me, for your voice was weak,


s: What made your eyes a glowing gloom of love,


s: As a warm South-wind sombers a March grove.


s: And it was like your great and gracious ways


s: To turn your talk on daily things, my Dear,


s: Because you spoke so low that I could scarcely hear.


s: But all at once to leave me at the last,


s: More at the wonder than the loss aghast,


s: And the only loveless look the look with which you passed:


s: 'Twas all unlike your great and gracious ways.


s: Though thou art sweet: thou hast no mind


s: O flowery sward! though thou art bright,


s: And kissed her foot, and kissed her knee:


s: Break, break, because thou needs must part


s: From thine own Love, from thine own Sweet!


s: For a day and a night Love sang to us, played with us,


s: Folded us round from the dark and the light;


s: And our hearts were fulfilled of the music he made with us,


s: Made with our hearts and our lips while he stayed with us,


s: Stayed in mid passage his pinions from flight


s: From his foes that kept watch with his wings had he hidden us,


s: Covered us close from the eyes that would smite,


s: Spirit and flesh growing one with delight


s: But his wings will not rest and his feet will not stay for us:


s: Morning is here in the joy of its might;


s: With his breath has he sweetened a night and a day for us:


s: Now let him pass, and the myrtles make way for us;


s: Love can but last in us here at his height


s: Kathleen Mavourneen! the gray dawn is breaking,


s: The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill;


s: The lark from her light wing the bright dew is shaking,--


s: Kathleen Mavourneen! what, slumbering still?


s: Oh, hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever?


s: Oh! hast thou forgotten this day we must part?


s: It may be for years, and it may be forever!


s: Oh, why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?


s: Oh! why art thou silent, Kathleen Mavourneen?


s: Kathleen Mavourneen, awake from thy slumbers!


s: The blue mountains glow in the sun's golden light;


s: Ah, where is the spell that once hung on my numbers?


s: Arise in thy beauty, thou star of my night!


s: Mavourneen, Mavourneen, my sad tears are falling,


s: To think that from Erin and thee I must part!


s: Then why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?


s: Then why art thou silent, Kathleen Mavourneen?


s: Come to me, dearest, I'm lonely without thee;


s: Daytime and night-time, I'm thinking about thee;


s: Night-time and daytime in dreams I behold thee;


s: Unwelcome the waking which ceases to fold thee.


s: Come to me, darling, my sorrows to lighten,


s: Come in thy beauty to bless and to brighten;


s: Come in thy womanhood, meekly and lowly,


s: Come in thy lovingness, queenly and holy.


s: Swallows will flit round the desolate ruin,


s: Telling of spring and its joyous renewing;


s: And thoughts of thy love and its manifold treasure,


s: Are circling my heart with a promise of pleasure.


s: O Spring of my spirit, O May of my bosom,


s: Shine out on my soul, till it bourgeon and blossom;


s: The waste of my life has a rose-root within it,


s: And thy fondness alone to the sunshine can win it.


s: Figure that moves like a song through the even;


s: Eyes like the skies of poor Erin, our mother,


s: Where shadow and sunshine are chasing each other;


s: Smiles coming seldom, but childlike and simple,


s: Planting in each rosy cheek a sweet dimple;--


s: O, thanks to the Saviour, that even thy seeming


s: Is left to the exile to brighten his dreaming.


s: You have been glad when you knew I was gladdened;


s: Dear, are you sad now to hear I am saddened?


s: Our hearts ever answer in tune and in time, love,


s: As octave to octave, and rhyme unto rhyme, love:


s: I cannot weep but your tears will be flowing,


s: You cannot smile but my cheek will be glowing;


s: I would not die without you at my side, love,


s: You will not linger when I shall have died, love.


s: Come to me, dear, ere I die of my sorrow,


s: Rise on my gloom like the sun of to-morrow;


s: Strong, swift, and fond are the words which I speak, love,


s: With a song on your lip and a smile on your cheek, love.


s: Come, for my heart in your absence is weary,--


s: Haste, for my spirit is sickened and dreary,--


s: Come to my arms which alone should caress thee,


s: Come to the heart which is throbbing to press thee!


s: Not yet, dear love, not yet: the sun is high;


s: You said last night, "At sunset I will go."


s: Come to the garden, where when blossoms die


s: Hark! how the birds sing sunny songs of spring!


s: Soon they will build, and work will silence them;


s: So we grow less light-hearted as years bring


s: The violets fret to fragrance 'neath your feet,


s: Heaven's gold sunlight dreams aslant your hair:


s: No flower for me! your mouth is far more sweet.


s: O, let my lips forget, while lingering there,


s: The parting hour, and so much left unsaid!


s: The garden has grown silent--void of song,


s: Our sorrow shakes us with a sudden dread!


s: Still, though I bask beneath their smile,


s: My heart nigh broke when I answered "No,"


s: That hour, sweet Love, is mine by right;


s: Some one wronged you from sheer love, dear;


s: My heart is with you as I kneel to pray,


s: "Good night!  God keep you in His care alway."


s: The moon comes stealing through the window bars.


s: A silver sickle gleaming 'mid the stars.


s: I say with sobbing breath the old fond prayer,


s: "Good night!  Sweet dreams!  God keep you everywhere!"


s: Thrice with her lips she touched my lips,


s: And three times thrice looked towards the sea,


s: Then, "Sweet," she said, "no more delay,


s: The anchor swings, the sheet flies loose


s: O Love, turn towards the land thy sight!


s: The lamp's clear gleam flits up the stair;


s: Latch goes tinklin'--thrills me through,


s: Dominic came riding down, sworded, straight and splendid,


s: Drave his hilt against her door, flung a golden chain.


s: Said: "I'll teach your lips a song sweet as his that's ended,


s: Ere the white rose call the bee, the almond flower again."


s: But he only saw her head bent within the gloom


s: Over heaps of bridal thread bright as apple-bloom,


s: Silver silk like rain that spread across the driving loom.


s: Dreaming Fanch, the cobbler's son, took his tools and laces,


s: Wrought her shoes of scarlet dye, shoes as pale as snow;


s: "They shall lead her wildrose feet all the fairy paces


s: Danced along the road of love, the road such feet should go"--


s: But he only saw her eyes turning from his gift


s: Out towards the silver skies where the white clouds drift,


s: Where the wild gerfalcon flies, where the last sails lift.


s: Bran has built his homestead high where the hills may shield her,


s: Said: "I'll name my trees for her, since I may not yield her


s: Stars of morning for her feet, of evening for her hair."


s: But he did not see them ride, seven dim sail and more,


s: All along the harbor-side, white from shore to shore,


s: Nor heard the voices of the tide crying at her door.


s: Jean-Marie has touched his pipe down beside the river


s: When the young fox bends the fern, when the folds are still,


s: Said: "I send her all the gifts that my love may give her,--


s: Golden notes like golden birds to seek her at my will."


s: But he only found the waves, heard the sea-gull's cry,


s: In and out the ocean caves, underneath the sky,


s: All above the wind-washed graves where dead seamen lie.


s: Now many are the stately ships that northward steam away,


s: But Oh my thoughts that go to you are more than all of these!


s: The winds blow to the northward like a million eager wings,


s: The driven sea a million white-capped waves to northward flings:


s: I send you thoughts more many than the waves that fleck the sea,


s: More eager than tempestuous winds, O Love long leagues from me!


s: O Love, long leagues from me, I would I trod the drenched deck


s: Of some ship speeding to the North and staunch against all wreck,


s: Unfaltering and fleet I'd fly the long way to my Dear!


s: O if I were the sea, upon your northern land I'd beat


s: Until my waves flowed over all, and kissed your wandering feet;


s: And if I were the winds, I'd waft you perfumes from the South,


s: And give my pleadings to your ears, my kisses to your mouth.


s: Though many ships are sailing, never one will carry me,


s: I may not hurry northward with the gulls, the winds, the sea;


s: All year through, and her heart gets free,--


s: Free on the trail of the wind to travel,


s: Drenched with gold weather, the idling willows


s: All spring through they falter and follow,


s: Wheel and float with the veering swallow,


s: Lift you a voice from the blue hillside.


s: Where in the twilight, too spent to roam,


s: Love, whom the fingers of death are quelling,


s: Cries you a cheer from the Norland home.


s: Dreams while the rainbirds all night through,


s: Tease the brown dusk on the marshes wide;


s: And here's an hour that yearns with pain


s: When she comes home again!  A thousand ways


s: Of my glad welcome: I shall tremble--yes;


s: And touch her, as when first in the old days


s: I touched her girlish hand, nor dared upraise


s: Mine eyes, such was my faint heart's sweet distress


s: Then silence: and the perfume of her dress:


s: Cloy eyesight--soul-sight, even--for a space;


s: And tears--yes; and the ache here in the throat,


s: Her arms make for me; and the sobbing note


s: I stay with kisses, ere the tearful face


s: His breast is Love's all-worshipped tomb,


s: For your cradle, your home, and your bier?


s: These lips are mute, these eyes are dry:


s: The thought that ne'er shall sleep again.


s: And kneeled and made the cheerless grate


s: And made her smooth white shoulder bare,


s: I am the torch, she saith, and what to me


s: Beauty, and I have neither joy nor shame.


s: But live with that clear light of perfect fire


s: Which is to men the death of their desire.


s: Troy burn, and the most loving knight lies dead.


s: The world has been my mirror, time has been


s: My breath upon the glass; and men have said,


s: Love's poor few words, before my image there.


s: The joy of life, mingle to make me wise;


s: Yet now the day is darkened with eclipse:


s: Who is there lives for beauty?  Still am I


s: The torch, but where's the moth that still dares die?


s: And there she wept and sighed full sore;


s: Pale warriors, death-pale were they all:


s: Though the sedge is withered from the lake,


s: Your flask full from the Mustang spring;


s: His flask was filled, and then he turned.


s: "Brave steed of mine, brave steed!" he cried,


s: His mouth was black with blood and sweat--


s: And prayed her bear with me, if so she might;


s: And tears that would not cease night after night.


s: And so I prayed her, weeping, that she bore


s: To soothe myself a little with her sight,


s: Who loved me once, ah many a night and day.


s: Yea, so that I might call her mine again.


s: Fettered her fair limbs, and her neck more fair,


s: Chained the fair wasted white of love's domain.


s: And put gold fetters on her golden hair.


s: Her hair, her hand, her body, till she die,


s: All mine, for me to do with what I please!


s: To chain her heart to love me as before,


s: Nor fetter for her lips, to make them cease


s: From saying still she loveth me no more.


s: When the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame,


s: The waes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e'e,


s: Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and sought me for his bride;


s: But saving a croun he had naething else beside:


s: To make the croun a pund, young Jamie gaed to sea;


s: And the croun and the pund were baith for me.


s: When my father brak his arm, and the kye was stown awa';


s: My mother she fell sick,--and my Jamie at the sea--


s: My father couldna work, and my mother couldna spin;


s: I toiled day and night, but their bread I couldna win;


s: Auld Rob maintained them baith, and wi' tears in his e'e


s: Said, "Jennie, for their sakes, O, marry me!"


s: My heart it said nay; I looked for Jamie back;


s: But the wind it blew high, and the ship it was a wrack;


s: His ship it was a wrack--Why didna Jamie dee?


s: My father urged me sair: my mother didna speak;


s: But she looked in my face till my heart was like to break:


s: They gi'ed him my hand, though my heart was in the sea;


s: Sae auld Robin Gray he was gudeman to me.


s: I hadna been a wife a week but only four,


s: When mournfu' as I sat on the stane at the door,


s: I saw my Jamie's wraith,--for I couldna think it he,


s: Till he said, "I'm come hame to marry thee."


s: O, sair, sair did we greet, and muckle did we say;


s: We took but ae kiss, and we tore ourselves away:


s: I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to dee;


s: I gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin;


s: I daurna think on Jamie, for that wad be a sin;


s: But I'll do my best a gude wife aye to be,


s: My heart is chilled and my pulse is slow,


s: Like a blind child lost in a waste of snow,


s: I sit here dreaming them through and through,


s: The blissful moments I shared with you--


s: The sweet, sweet days when our love was new,


s: I pushed from my window the curtaining vine,


s: To see from your lattice the lamp-light shine--


s: Once more the starlight is silvering all;


s: And I hear again through the sweet air fall


s: But summers will vanish and years will wane,


s: And that proves dross which I counted gold;


s: The window is dark and the night is cold,


s: When she took it from my trembling fingers


s: Withered, faded, pressed between the pages,


s: When no morrow is before us, and the long grass tosses o'er us,


s: And our grave remains forgotten, or by alien footsteps pressed--


s: Fragrance fanning off from flowers, melody of summer showers,


s: Sparkle of the spicy wood-fires round the happy autumn hearth.


s: On the violet's purple bosom, I the sheen, but you the blossom,


s: Or, beloved--if ascending--when we have endowed the world


s: Only this our yearning answers: wheresoe'er that way defile,


s: Not a film shall part us through the eons of that mighty while,


s: In the fair eternal weather, even as phantoms still together,


s: False moon!  False moon!  O waning moon!


s: Thou hast the lips that should be kissed!


s: I cried, "You know not for you are free!"


s: "That is my home-light, there in the vale,


s: But let me lie first mid the unfeeling fern;


s: "For there is a flame that has blown too near,


s: And there is a name that has grown too dear,


s: And to the still hills and cool earth and far sky I made moan,


s: "O would I were free as the wind on wing;


s: "Yea, from the grasp of your white hands


s: For that mine eyes you closed, mine eyes


s: Though you should lean above me broken-hearted,


s: I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful


s: And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted


s: Nay, you wrong her, my friend, she's not fickle; her love


s: One can read the whole matter, translating her heart


s: Can you bear me to talk with you frankly?  There is much that


s: And you know we were children together, have quarreled


s: And so, for the sake of old friendship, I venture to tell you


s: As plainly, perhaps, and as bluntly, as I might in our


s: Five summers ago, when you wooed her, you stood on the


s: Face to face, heart to heart, never dreaming your souls


s: She loved you at that time entirely, in the bloom, of her life's


s: And it is not her fault, I repeat it, that she does not love you


s: Nature never stands still, nor souls either: they ever go up


s: And hers has been steadily soaring--but how has it been


s: And you?  Have you aimed at the highest?  Have you, too,


s: Have you looked upon evil unsullied?  Have you conquered it


s: Have you, too, grown purer and wiser, as the months


s: Did you meet her this morning rejoicing in the triumph


s: Nay, hear me!  The truth cannot harm you.  When to-day


s: Was the hand that you gave her as white and clean as that


s: Go measure yourself by her standard; look back on the years


s: Then ask, if you need, why she tells you that the love of her


s: Now farewell!  For the sake of old friendship I have ventured


s: The world seems tasteless, dead and done--


s: The strawberry-leaves were red and sere;


s: The wise world smiles, and calls you great;


s: Renown and power and friends and gold,--


s: Your life's proud aim, your art's high truth,


s: Would reach the pathless darkness through,


s: And the little gray church on the windy shore;


s: She will not come, though you call all day;


s: Where the spent lights quiver and gleam,


s: Where the salt weed sways in the stream,


s: Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground;


s: On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea,


s: She combed its bright hair, and she tended it well,


s: When down swung the sound of the far-off bell.


s: She sighed, she looked up through the clear green sea;


s: She said: "I must go, for my kinsfolk pray


s: In the little gray church on the shore to-day.


s: 'Twill he Easter-time in the world,--ah me!


s: And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee."


s: I said: "Go up, dear heart, through the waves:


s: Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea-caves!"


s: She smiled, she went up through the surf in the bay.


s: "The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan;


s: Long prayers," I said, "in the world they say;


s: Come!" I said, and we rose through the surf in the bay.


s: Where the sea-stocks bloom, to the white-walled town,


s: Through the narrow paved streets, where all was still,


s: To the little gray church on the windy hill.


s: From the church came a murmur of folk at their prayers,


s: But we stood without in the cold blowing airs.


s: We climbed on the graves, on the stones worn with rains,


s: And we gazed up the aisle through the small leaded panes.


s: She sate by the pillar; we saw her clear:


s: "Margaret, hist! come quick, we are here!


s: Dear heart," I said, "we are long alone;


s: The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan."


s: For her eyes were sealed to the holy book!


s: Loud prays the priest; shut stands the door.


s: She sits at her wheel in the humming town,


s: From the humming street, and the child with its toy!


s: From the priest, and the bell, and the holy well;


s: She steals to the window, and looks at the sand,


s: For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden,


s: Through the silent house, but the wind at his prayers.


s: Had ceased, but the eaves were dripping yet;


s: And the moon looked forth, as though in pain,


s: But the friend of my bosom, the man I love:


s: But the good young Priest with the Raphael-face,


s: That good young Priest is of gentle nerve,


s: And my grief had moved him beyond control;


s: For his lip grew white, as I could observe,


s: "On her cold dead bosom my portrait lies,


s: Which next to her heart she used to wear--


s: And I said--The thing is precious to me:


s: They will bury her soon in the churchyard clay;


s: And crept up the stairs that creaked for fright,


s: As I stretched my hand, I held my breath;


s: I thought at first, as my touch fell there,


s: It had warmed that heart to life, with love;


s: For the thing I touched was warm, I swear,


s: 'Twas the hand of a man, that was moving slow


s: O'er the heart of the dead,--from the other side:


s: And at once the sweat broke over my brow:


s: The friend of my bosom, the man I loved,


s: Stood over the corpse, and all as white,


s: "What do you here, my friend?"...The man


s: Looked first at me, and then at the dead.


s: Said the friend of my bosom, "Yours, no doubt,


s: When this suffering angel took that out,


s: "This woman, she loved me well," said I.


s: "And in your throat," I groaned, "you lie!"


s: "Enough!" I returned, "let the dead decide:


s: His shall it be, when the cause is tried,


s: We found the portrait there, in its place:


s: The face of the portrait there," I cried,


s: "Is our friend's, the Raphael-faced young Priest,


s: And pearls which a Peri might have kept.


s: Though bright her eyes' bewildering gleams,


s: Young lover, tossed 'twixt hope and fear,


s: Go to him, ah, go to him, and lift your eyes aglow to him;


s: Fear not royally to give whatever he may claim;


s: All your spirit's treasury scruple not to show to him.


s: He is noble; meet him with a pride too high for shame.


s: Say to him, ah, say to him, that soul and body sway to him;


s: Cast away the cowardice that counsels you to flight,


s: Lest you turn at last to find that you have lost the way to him,


s: Lest you stretch your arms in vain across a starless night.


s: Be to him, ah, be to him, the key that sets joy free to him,


s: Teach him all the tenderness that only love can know,


s: And if ever there should come a memory of me to him,


s: Bid him judge me gently for the sake of long ago.


s: Which do you pity the most of us three?--


s: And seemed in the way of improvement yet,


s: When she crossed his path with her hunting-noose,


s: So, I gave her eyes my own eyes to take,


s: The eagle am I, with my fame in the world,


s: For see, my friend goes shaking and white;


s: I have turned, it appears, his day to night,


s: And I did it, he thinks, as a very thief:


s: "Though I love her--that, he comprehends--


s: One should master one's passions, (love, in chief)


s: With no mind to eat it, that's the worst!


s: Were it thrown in the road, would the case assist?


s: 'Twas quenching a dozen blue-flies' thirst


s: And I,--what I seem to my friend, you see:


s: What I soon shall seem to his love, you guess:


s: What I seem to myself, do you ask of me?


s: 'Tis an awkward thing to play with souls,


s: Yet think of my friend, and the burning coals


s: One likes to show the truth for the truth;


s: But suppose she says,--Never mind that youth!


s: And, Robert Browning, you writer of plays,


s: These gifts were charmed by secret spell


s: That lute was sweet--till thou couldst think


s: When thou wert changed, they altered too;


s: False heart, frail chain, and silent lute.


s: She wept and sobbed, "Oh, love, come back!"


s: Peace charmed the street beneath her feet,


s: 'Twixt Want and Scorn she walked forlorn,


s: For, as love's wild prayer dissolved in air,


s: But the sin forgiven by Christ in heaven


s: Grandmither, think not I forget, when I come back to town,


s: An' wander the old ways again, an' tread them up and down.


s: I never smell the clover bloom, nor see the swallows pass,


s: Without I mind how good ye were unto a little lass.


s: I never hear the winter rain a-pelting all night through,


s: Without I think and mind me of how cold it falls on you.


s: And if I come not often to your bed beneath the thyme,


s: Mayhap 'tis that I'd change wi' ye, and gie my bed for thine,


s: I never hear the summer winds among the roses blow,


s: Without I wonder why it was ye loved the lassie so.


s: Ye gave me cakes and lollipops and pretty toys a store,--


s: I never thought I should come back and ask ye now for more.


s: They grope among the shadows, an' they beat the cold black air,


s: They go seekin' in the darkness, an' they never find him there,


s: Grandmither, gie me your sightless eyes, that I may never see


s: His own a-burnin' full o' love that must not shine for me.


s: Grandmither, gie me your clay-stopped ears, that I may never hear


s: A-singin' when the moonlight over a' the land is white--


s: Ah, God! I'll up an' go to him a-singin' in the night,


s: Grandmither, gie me your clay-cold heart that has forgot to ache,


s: Wi' every beat it's callin' for things that must not be,--


s: An' can ye not let me creep in an' rest awhile by ye?


s: A little lass afeard o' dark slept by ye years agone--


s: Ye'll know it's under rue an' rose that I would like to be,


s: Through the fierce fever I nursed him, and then he said


s: He sent a boat with men for his own white priest,


s: And he gave my father horses, and made a feast.


s: I will not live for scorning eyes to see.


s: (Little wild baby, that knowest not where thou art going,


s: Lie still! lie still!  Thy mother will do the rowing.)


s: Three moons ago--it was but three moons ago--


s: He took his gun, and started across the snow;


s: For the river was frozen, the river that still goes down


s: Every day, as I watch it, to find the town;


s: The town whose name I caught from his sleeping lips,


s: I to that town am going, to search the place,


s: With his little white son in my arms, till I see his face.


s: Only once shall I need to look in his eyes,


s: To see if his soul, as I knew it, lives or dies.


s: If it lives, we live, and if it is dead, we die,


s: And the soul of my baby will never ask me why.


s: I have asked about the river: one answered me,


s: That after the town it goes to find the sea;


s: That great waves, able to break the stoutest bark,


s: Are there, and the sea is very deep and dark.


s: If he is happy without me, so best, so best;


s: I will take his baby and go away to my rest.


s: (Little wild baby, that knowest not where thou art going,


s: Lie still! lie still!  Thy mother will do the rowing.


s: The river flows swiftly, the sea is dark and deep:


s: Little wild baby, lie still!  Lie still and sleep.)


s: And dost thou smile?  O, thy sweet face!


s: No doubt thou wouldst soon purchase grace,


s: His feignings false and flattering cheer


s: And when thou wak'st thou'll sweetly smile:


s: A sentinel angel, sitting high in glory,


s: Heard this shrill wail ring out from Purgatory:


s: "Have mercy, mighty angel, hear my story!


s: "I loved,--and, blind with passionate love, I fell.


s: Love brought me down to death, and death to Hell;


s: For God is just, and death for sin is well.


s: Nor for myself do ask that grace shall be;


s: But for my love on earth who mourns for me.


s: "Great Spirit!  Let me see my love again


s: And comfort him one hour, and I were fain


s: To pay a thousand years of fire and pain."


s: Then said the pitying angel, "Nay, repent


s: That wild vow!  Look, the dial-finger's bent


s: Down to the last hour of thy punishment!"


s: But still she wailed, "I pray thee, let me go!


s: I cannot rise to peace and leave him so.


s: O, let me soothe him in his bitter woe!"


s: And upwards, joyous, like a rising star,


s: But soon adown the dying sunset sailing,


s: And like a wounded bird her pinions trailing,


s: She fluttered back, with broken-hearted wailing,


s: She sobbed, "I found him by the summer sea


s: Reclined, his head upon a maiden's knee,--


s: She curled his hair and kissed him.  Woe is me!"


s: I have been fond and foolish.  Let me in


s: The angel answered, "Nay, sad soul, go higher!


s: To be deceived in your true heart's desire


s: Was bitterer than a thousand years of fire!"


s: She was only a woman, famished for loving,


s: Mad with devotion, and such slight things;


s: Her heart's sweet gamut is cracking and breaking


s: For a look, for a touch,--for such slight things;


s: Grimacing and fingering his fiddle-strings.


s: "Only a white sea-gull with its pinions spread."


s: "Only the slender light-house tower against the sky."


s: "Only a shred of cloud in the sunset red."


s: "Only a rock half-bared by the ebbing tide."


s: "The Harbor Belle; her mate comes home to marry me.


s: Was it the west wind wailed or the babe on her arm?


s: For I knew o'er the grave o' the Harbor Belle the sea-gulls fly.


s: The sheets shall ne'er be pressed by me:


s: And shake the green leaves aff the tree?


s: Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird


s: "Though she should hate me, wit you well,


s: With death,--and death were death indeed!"


s: As suggested By The Painting By Philip Burne-Jones


s: (We called her the woman who did not care),


s: But the fool he called her his lady fair


s: Oh the years we waste and the tears we waste,


s: (And now we know that she never could know)


s: (And it wasn't the least what the lady meant),


s: Oh the toil we lost and the spoil we lost,


s: The fool was stripped to his foolish hide


s: Which she might have seen when she threw him aside,--


s: So some of him lived but the most of him died--


s: And it isn't the shame and it isn't the blame


s: It's coming to know that she never knew why


s: (Seeing at last she could never know why)


s: She stops, she stoops, she plucks a flower.


s: And still she haunts those woodland ways,


s: To hearth where love hath ceased to blaze:


s: And, with her forehead 'gainst the pane,


s: You were always a dreamer, Rose--red Rose,


s: Why did you smile to his face, red Rose,


s: And Death weighed on her heart like stone.


s: The wind is awake, pretty leaves, pretty leaves,


s: Heed not what he says; he deceives, he deceives:


s: He has lisped the same love (and forgotten it, too)


s: He will soon be lisping and pledging to you.


s: The boy is abroad, pretty maid, pretty maid,


s: Beware his soft words; I'm afraid, I'm afraid:


s: Ay, he died for a dozen ere his beard pricked through,


s: And the very same death he will die for you.


s: The way of the boy is the way of the wind,


s: As light as the leaves is dainty maid-kind;


s: But I know you will learn it too late, my dear.


s: Back she came through the trembling dusk;


s: "Oh mother, my hen that never had chicks


s: "What gives your eyes that dancing light,


s: What makes your lips so strangely bright,


s: "Oh mother, the berries I ate in the lane


s: Back she came through the faltering dusk;


s: "You are weeping; your footstep is heavy with care--


s: What makes you totter and cling to the stair,


s: "Oh mother--oh mother--you never can know--


s: She seems to drag one piteous fallen wing


s: Along the ground, and, like a wounded bird,


s: Move silent, having lost the heart to sing.


s: "A heaven-high hedge," were the words he said,


s: "And holly-hocks, pink and white and red...."


s: It seemed so far from McChesney's Hall--


s: A long path runs inside from the gate,--


s: But where in the world is the path for me


s: The carmine grape, the moth's auroral wing.


s: "On love is fair, and love is rare;" my dear one she said,


s: "But love goes lightly over."  I bowed her foolish head,


s: And kissed her hair and laughed at her.  Such a child was she;


s: So new to love, so true to love, and she spoke so bitterly.


s: But there's wisdom in women, of more than they have known,


s: And thoughts go blowing through them, are wiser than their own,


s: Or how should my dear one, being ignorant and young,


s: Have cried on love so bitterly, with so true a tongue?


s: Rest on the truth of the glorious youth,


s: That great clear spirit of flickering fire


s: But his voice and his glance are not for you;


s: To chain forever that strong young wing.


s: Let the butterfly break for his own sweet sake


s: The gossamer threads that have bound him;


s: Let him shed in free flight his rainbow light,


s: Short is the struggle and slight is the strain;


s: But for the thing that cried and fluttered


s: Youth crying above foul words, cheap music,


s: Death's none too dear a price, they say,


s: Emmy's exquisite youth and her virginal air,


s: Eyes and teeth in the flash of a musical smile,


s: Come to me out of the past, and I see her there


s: Emmy's laughter rings in my ears, as bright,


s: Fresh and sweet as the voice of a mountain brook,


s: And still I hear her telling us tales that night,


s: There, in the midst of the villainous dancing-hall,


s: Leaning across the table, over the beer,


s: While the music maddened the whirling skirts of the ball,


s: There with the women, haggard, painted and old,


s: One fresh bud in a garland withered and stale,


s: She, with her innocent voice and her clear eyes, told


s: And ever the witching smile, to her face beguiled,


s: Paused and broadened, and broke in a ripple of fun,


s: And the soul of a child looked out of the eyes of a child,


s: O my child, who wronged you first, and began


s: First the dance of death that you dance so well?


s: Soul for soul: and I think the soul of a man


s: Cursed be the heart that thought the thought,


s: And cursed the hand that fired the shot,


s: She sought him east, she sought him west,


s: Through moor, and moss, and many a mire;


s: The gray was a mare, and a right gude mare;


s: She could not have ridden the ford that night


s: Had a thousand merks been wadded at her.


s: But the stream was broad, and her strength did fail,


s: When I laid the moul' on his yellow hair?


s: And gave a doleful groan through Yarrow.


s: They sought him east, they sought him west,


s: They sought him all the forest thorough;


s: And then with thee I'll sleep in Yarrow.


s: Black piers with crust of dripping green,


s: Though thy crest feel the wild sea's breath,


s: Oh, guard the treasure-house, where death


s: Sweet his tongue as the throstle's note;


s: Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,


s: Now green's the sod, and cauld's the clay,


s: Thou lingering star, with lessening ray,


s: Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast?


s: Ayr, gurgling, kissed his pebbled shore,


s: O'erhung with wild woods, thickening green;


s: Twined amorous round the raptured scene;


s: The flowers sprang wanton to be pressed,


s: Still o'er these scenes my memory wakes,


s: What fond and wayward thoughts will slide


s: Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,


s: In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,


s: "The floating clouds their state shall lend


s: Where rivulets dance their wayward round


s: Nor love's own kiss shall wake those eyes


s: I checked him while he spoke; yet could he speak,


s: For reasons not to love him once I sought,


s: Who lately lived for me, and when he found


s: He hid his face amid the shades of death.


s: Who wasted his for me; but mine returns,


s: With stifling heat, heaving it up in sleep,


s: Tears that had melted his soft heart: for years


s: Merciful God!  Such was his latest prayer,


s: Quieter is his breath, his breast more cold,


s: Where children spell, athwart the churchyard gate,


s: Pray for him, gentle souls, whoe'er you be,


s: She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps,


s: But coldly she turns from their gaze, and weeps,


s: She sings the wild songs of her dear native plains,


s: Ah! little they think, who delight in her strains,


s: How the heart of the minstrel is breaking.


s: He had lived for his love, for his country he died,


s: They were all that to life had entwined him;


s: Nor soon shall the tears of his country be dried,


s: Oh! make her a grave where the sunbeams rest,


s: They'll shine o'er her sleep, like a smile from the West,


s: At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly


s: To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye;


s: And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air


s: To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there,


s: And tell me our love is remembered even in the sky.


s: Then I sing the wild song 'twas once such rapture to hear,


s: When our voices commingling breathed like one on the ear;


s: And, as Echo far off through the vale my sad orison rolls,


s: I think, O my love! 'tis thy voice from the Kingdom of  Souls


s: Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear.


s: Your limbs are light, your hearts are gay;


s: Sing, shepherds, sing; sweet lady, listen;


s: With happy tears her bright eyes glisten,


s: The voice she loved has long been still;


s: There's a grass-grown road from the valley--


s: As with all things she brushed was blent);


s: Crown thyself, Death; let fall thy tread


s: And through my chilling veins shall flame


s: Your hand, your voice, your smile, your kiss.


s: And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom:


s: And feed deep thought with many a dream,


s: Fond wretch! as if her step disturbed the dead!


s: That Death nor heeds nor hears distress:


s: If I had thought thou couldst have died,


s: While e'en thy chill, bleak corse I have,


s: As Heaven's sweet life renews earth's life


s: We walked too straight for fortune's end,


s: Our voice which thrilled you so, will let


s: "Dear love, you're looking tired," he said:


s: Disdain them, break them, throw them by!


s: I have prayed for thee with bursting sob


s: They whispered oft, "She sleepeth soft"--


s: Lest Heaven's own palm droop in my hand,


s: And I still keep list'nin' for the words


s: For I've laid you, darling, down to sleep,


s: They say there's bread and work for all,


s: And the springin' corn, and the bright May morn,


s: That the love of his heart lay suffering,


s: And pined for the comfort his voice would bring;


s: Which he kept for battle and days of need;


s: Bridles were slackened, and girths were burst;


s: But ride as they would, the king rode first,


s: They have fainted, and faltered, and homeward gone;


s: The king looked back at that faithful child;


s: They passed the drawbridge with clattering din,


s: Then he dropped; and only the king rode in


s: The king blew a blast on his bugle horn;


s: None welcomed the king from that weary ride;


s: For dead, in the light of the dawning day,


s: The pale sweet form of the welcomer lay,


s: Who had yearned for his voice while dying!


s: The panting steed, with a drooping crest,


s: The king returned from her chamber of rest,


s: The tears gushed forth which he strove to check;


s: He bowed his head on his charger's neck:


s: "O steed, that every nerve didst strain,


s: Gone are those three, those sisters rare


s: Ye mourners, weave for the sleeping hair


s: "Few vows you make; but true's your heart,


s: He sought the friar, the gray old priest


s: The souls we loved, that they might tell us


s: She plucked that piece of geranium-flower,


s: The shutters are shut, no light may pass


s: And our paths in the world diverged so wide,


s: Each was naught to each, must I be told?


s: And creates the love to reward the love:


s: I claim you still, for my own love's sake!


s: Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few:


s: But the time will come,--at last it will,


s: When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say)


s: In the lower earth, in the years long still,


s: Why your hair was amber, I shall divine,


s: And your mouth of your own geranium's red,--


s: In the new life come in the old one's stead.


s: I have lived (I shall say) so much since then,


s: Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,


s: There was place and to spare for the frank young smile,


s: And the red young mouth, and the hair's young gold.


s: So, hush,--I will give you this leaf to keep:


s: See, I shut it inside the sweet, cold hand!


s: You will wake, and remember, and understand.


s: Cold in the earth--and the deep snow piled above thee,


s: Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!


s: Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,


s: Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?


s: Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover


s: Over the mountains, on that northern shore,


s: Resting their wings where heath and fern-leaves cover


s: Cold in the earth--and fifteen wild Decembers,


s: From those brown hills, have melted into spring:


s: Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers


s: After such years of change and suffering!


s: Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee,


s: While the world's tide is bearing me along;


s: Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong!


s: No later light has lightened up my heaven,


s: All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given,


s: All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.