1. 1i «-*.>., f\l. f // M A R yv n ISAAC FOOT LIBRARY PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODH AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 1 ONDON M A R A H OWEN MEREDITH LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST ir,"' STKKKT 1892 fe D LIBRARY JIQ^U I^NIVERSITY OF CALIFORNU ^/^^ SANTA RARRAPA /ws SANTA BARBARA PREFACE These poems, written in leisure hours during the past and previous years, were already in proof at the time of my husband's death, and the last few weeks of his life were occupied in revising them. No doubt they would have received from himself still further correction, and he had ordered several privately printed copies to submit to the judgment of friends. These did not arrive till the day after his death. While each of the poems is complete in itself, they are so arranged as to form a connected whole, and are meant to be read consecutively. My husband's intention was to represent successive stages of feeling, and, in accordance with this design, he divided the MAKAH PAGE II. — I GAVE HER LOVE: I GAVE HER FAITH, &C. . 40 Experientia docet ? . . . . . . . 41 Omens and Oracles ....... 44 Idolatry . . . . . . . . . 46 Antagonisms ........ 48 Amari Aliquid . . . . . . J . 50 Ars Amoris . . . . . . . -51 Marah's Dower . . . . . . . . 54 Rubies and Pearls ...... 55 Dreams . . . . . . . . . 58 Figures of Speech ....... 67 The Only Difference . . . . . . 69 One Rose ........ 70 By the Gates of Hell 71 When all is over ....... 73 CONTENTS PAGE III. — If thou art still a griefless girl or boy 78 Life .......... 79 Semper eadem ....... 80 Firelight ......... 82 Ghosts ......... 84 Nunc stans ........ 87 I'erversity ........ 89 Haunted ......... 90 Episode ........ 92 Lies .......... 94 Love's Lal)our Lost ...... 98 Horace and Lydia {Modern) ... . . 100 Fugiens Imago . . . . . . .110 .Still! 114 .Selene . . . . . . . . .116 Travelling Acquaintance . . . . . . 122 X MAR AH PAGE IV. — I HAVE SEARCH'D THE UNIVERSE, &C. . . 132 Seaward ......... 133 Nocturn ........ 135 Cceanus . . . . . . . . . 137 A Lost Chance ....... 143 Saturnalia. . . . . . . . . 146 Perturbation . . . . . . . • I53 Storm 157 Diminuendo ........ 164 Moonland. ........ 166 Selenites . . . . . . . .172 Somnium Belluinum ....... 175 Epilogue 187 Appendix— Lord Lytton's last Poem . . , 193 PROLOGUE Lured by the promise of a better land, They wander'd in the wilderness of Shur ; Vagrants, from bondage fled, a weary band, Whose weariness each day made wearier ; And waterless was all the desert sand, No wells at hand ! A place at last they reach'd, in sore distress, Where water flow'd, but from a bitter spring. Then cried they, " Here we die of thirst, unless God turn this bitter sweet ! " And, murmuring, They call'd it Marah. Nor can speech express More bitterness. £ 2 Tears are Christian, kisses Pagan. Love is both, and each his prize. On his lips are Pagan kisses. Christian tears are in his eyes. Magdalens with Mcenads mingle in his rites, and round his way Intertwine the rose of Paphos with the thorns of Golgotha. 3 Thorn or rose, \\ hich best becomes him ? Both his loveliness endears : Roses red with Pagan kisses, thorns bedew'd with Christian tears ! "THAT IS THE QUESTION" One ask'd me suddenly if I thought her fair ; And then, for the first time, I felt, " How dull These eyes, that have so long been unaware Whether she is, or is not, beautiful ! " Rut I have had no time to find that out, Nor thought to spare to it from days all pass'd In one continual fluctuating doubt Whether she loves me yet, or will at last. MARAH IHC INCEPIT Something wild as the heart of a boy (But what is it?) awakens in me, Like the love of a love, and the joy Of a joy, that are going to be ; Or the nebulous beam in the breast Of a mist the moon brightens behind A ])rediction that does but suggest A fulfilment it leaves undefin'd. HIC INCEPIT 3 It was born of a breath and a dream, 'Tis the soul of a look or a tone, And the parent of pleasures that seem But as preludes to others unknown. 4 Vet how soon could its sweetness be kill'd By the pang of a premature bliss, And so die of a promise fulfill'd On the lips I am longing to kiss ! MARAH CHI LO SA? I Prithee tell me, Sweet, how shall I ever Have deserved thee ? ^^'hat trials, what tears, What renewals of daily endeavour. What endurance of sorrowful years, ^lay bear witness how well I have loved thee. And establish my claim to thy heart ? Or when long thou hast tried me and proved me, Will it be but to bid me depart ? Ah, could love be obtain'd for love's sake ! But the gift is bestow'd, and not owed, Nor can worth aiiy claim to it make. For the blessing of love is a boon from above And no heed of desert doth it take. CHI LO SA ? Blowing tree, the full blossoms that bend thee May be all of them promises vain ! Who can say whether heaven will yet send thee The good chance of its ripening rain ? Glowing heart, the fond dreams that possess thee May be all lying prophets at best ! Who can say if she ever will bless thee With one moment of bliss on her breast ? Ah, could love be obtain'd for love's sake ! But 'tis purchased by none, nor yet won, Tho' to win it life's all be the stake. For the blessing of love is a boon from above. And no heed of desert doth it take. MARAH IF So you but love me, be it your own way, In your own time, no sooner than you will. No warmer than you would from day to day, But love me still ! Each day that still you love me seems to me A little fairer than the day before. For, daily given, love's least must daily be A little more. IF 3 And be my most gain'd your least given, if such Your sweet will be ! I reckon not the cost, Nor count the gain, by little or by much, Or least or most. 4 Little or much, to me the gift I crave Is all in all. There is not any measure Of more or less can gauge the need I have Of that dear treasure. 5 So you but love me, tho' your love be cold. Mine it can chill not. Tho' your love come late, Mine for its coming, by sweet dreams foretold, Will dreaming wait. 12 MAR AH 6 Yet ah, if some far chance, before I die. One hour of waking life might let me live, Rich with the dream'd-of dear reality 'Tis yours to give ! 7 Your whole sweet self, with your sweet selfs whole love ! Those eyes of fire and dew, those lips wish-haunted, Those feet whose steps like elfin music move Thro' worlds enchanted ! 8 Your whole sweet self ! The unutter'd thoughts that stir Your lonest musings with light wings unheard. And feelings that find no interpreter In deed or word ! IF . . . .? 13 9 Your whole sweet self, that, till by love reveal'd, Even to yourself still half unknown must be ! For of the wealth in souls like yours conceal'd Love keeps the key. Ah, if your whole sweet self, by all the power Of your sweet selfs whole love in some divine Far distant hour made wholly yours, that hour Made wholly mine, And if in that blest hour all dreams came true, All doubts dissolv'd, all fears were whirl'd away In one wild storm of tendernesses new As time's first day, 14 MA RAH What should we both be ? Hush ! I do not dare Even to hear my own heart's whisper utter 'd. Be its sole answerer the silent air 'J'his sigh has flutter'd ! TELEPATHY Last night we met, where others meet, To part as others part ; And greeted but as others greet. Who greet not heart to heart ; We talk'd of other things, and then To other folk pass'd by ; You turn'd and sat with other men ; With other women, I. l6 ATA RAH 3 And yet a world of things unsaid Meanwhile between us pass'd ; Your cheek my phantom kiss flush'd red, And you look'd up at last ; 4 And then your glance met mine midway Across the chattering crowd ; And all that heart to heart can say Was in that glance avow'd. 17 HER PORTRAIT Her form has the mingled grace Of a child and a queen in one. There is pride in her pure young face, In her voice is a far-off tone, And her eyes have the gaze of a forest creature That has lived in the woods alone. A creature whose steps are light As the leaflets brusht by its brow, When 'tis stay'd in its buoyant flight By the sound of a rustling bough, And, suddenly motionless, looks and listens As she looks and is listenino; now. 1 8 MA RAH 3 But a young queen, too, she looks. And I think that a woodland doe, If transform'd, as in fairy books, By the magic of long ago To a mystical, milk-white, maiden princess Would listen and look just so. 4 Her summers, at most nineteen, Are yet short of a single score ; Twice as much has the number been Of my winters, and something more ; And my knowledge of life is a cramm'd museum, Hers only an infant's store. 5 Yet I see but thro" her wild eyes, And my thoughts are whatever she thinks ; HER PORTRAIT 19 If she praises, I feel I am wise ; If she censures, my confidence sinks ; A:id, as judged by the least of her looks and glances, My spirit expands or shrinks. 6 I have faced the world in my day. And have fought it and overthrown \ I have struggled and won my way, And no rival has beaten me down ; Yet my courage fails, and my whole frame falters, If she chances to chide or frown. 7 Her light little step outstrips My stride, to ascents sublime ; Hid in shadows that haunt her lips Are the secrets of space and time ; And, attuned to the music around her moving, The stars in their courses chime. c 2 MA RAH She has read not the tedious tale Of the dead world's grief and glee, Nor been stirr'd by the shrill birth-wail Of the ages beginning to be ; But she carries secure at her simple girdle The Infinite's golden key. 9 I have gather'd what life can give, With the prizes its pains confer ; Yet for naught do I care to live But to love and be loved by her. Fate, grant me but this, and all gains and glories I surrender without demur ! DEFECTIVE TITLE Mine, and mine only, and all mine, Spirit and flesh, and brain and heart, By right of birth, and right divine. And every right but one, thou art. But, wanting that one right, I know The rest are wrongs without redress. Ah, child, a kingless kingdom thou. And I a king that's kingdomless. MARAH INVESTITURE 1 KiNGDOMLESS? No ! For infinite The kingdom is, thro' thee made mine And there I reign by royal right Sole lord of recfions all divine. Nor kingless thou, whose monarch crown'd And robed am I, in realms afar, Fairer than all that here are found On earth. For not of earth they are. CORK OB OR A TION I Is it the echo of a word, Whose hngering tones betoken I dream 'd it not, but really heard ? And was it sung, or spoken? 2 Some great good news has come to roe, I know. But who averr'd it ? And it is tiue ? And was it she Tliat whisper'd, I that heard, it? MARAH 3 So light that whisper fell, methought No sense but mine it flutter'd. What tell-tale Spirit can have caught A sound so softly utter'd, 4 And spread the message wide, and told The gathering stars to greet it ^^'ith signals flash'd from shafts of gold, The sea-waves to repeat it, 5 The woods its influence to attest, And the soft winds that heave them ? They all assure me I am blest. And I must needs believe them. CORKOBOKATION Stars, waves, and woods, and winds, no fear Have I lest you be lying. For to your tale my heart can hear The harps of Heaven replying. 26 MARAII SUMMER NIGHT The summer night fills heaven's remotest spheres With stars and meteors. And with fluttering fires ]My heart's thrill'd deeps are throng'd by radiant tears And brisiht desires. Heaven and my heart these summer glories share. Nor ever, since Latona brought to birth The first New Moon, has summer night so fair Bless'd heaven and earth. SUMMED NIGHT 27 3 Heaven's own the stars arc, and the meteors : mine The tears and the desires, that meteors are And stars of another heaven, no less divine, Tho' not so far. 4 Tears into stars distill'd from that dehght The nightingale to the sweet silence sings ! Desires that roam love's fervid infinite On flaming wings, 5 The meteor-pulses of its palpitant blue ! And tears, desires, and stars, the night and I, All, all, are tremulous with thoughts of you, Each thought a joy ! 28 MAR. -Ill AWAY ! Come away, love ! With me, love, away ! Far away from the world that we know, Far from all we have done till to-day. And from all we have been until now Far away ! Set impassable distance between All that was and that is ! And let naught Be remember'd, heard, spoken, or seen That can ever remind us of aught That has been ! AlVAY! 29 3 Of the past every vestige efface, With its doings, whatever they were ! Of each circumstance, person, and place That have been its accompHces, spare Not a trace ! 4 And discard with the days that are done All their cumbrous caparisonings ! Of old habitudes need have we none, Who have only to spread out our wings And be gone. 5 P)Ut wherever they bear us away, Be it far from the world that we know ! Far from all we have done till to-day, And from all we have been until now Far away ! MARAH ABSENCE Not in my life, but yours, I live ; And from myself I seem to be As far away, dear fugitive. As you are far from me. Unlit by you, no light have I, A fainting lamp that's fed by none The earth seems left without a sky, The sky without a sun. ABSENCE 31 3 Come back ! come back ! And witli you bring All that with you is gone away, Warmth, light, life, love, and everything That stays but where you stay ! 33 MAR AH WAITING The years that are before us still May to our lives allot Mischance of many a kind, and fill Time's empty lap with many an ill. That thought affrights me not. But six short weeks are still to pass Before the long'd-for day That brings her back ; and these, alas ! If these go wrong ? The future has For me no worse dismay. WAITING 33 3 Only six weeks ! But each contains How many perilous hours ! Each hour how many possible pains, How many risks ! What blights and banes To dread from unknown Powers ! 4 With her, no fears my heart appal, Tho' life with ills be throng'd : Without her, no mischance so small But it may prove the worst of all, Absence from her prolong'd ! 5 I dread not foes that love may find Along the distant track Of future years. But O, be kind, You Powers that now rule wave and wind, And bring her safely back ! 34 MARAH DEATH She came not back. She will not come again ; And I shall never any more behold Her dear, dear face. But absence was worse pain Than death is now that Memory keeps safe hold Of all Hope miss'd. A pure dawn to the last Our love was, and no change can cloud it now. Here on thy grave in the eternal past, Heart of my heart, these fading flowers I strow. Here let them perish ! From their fate secure. Thou, where they blossom'd, deep in my dream-life (Death's changeless charm all thine) dost still endure Undying. More to me than bride or wife. Heaven's revelation thou remainest, seen First in the wish'd for future, now seen best DEA TH J 5 In the saved past, of love that might have been Less beautiful if earth had once possess'd Its beauty. Memory, that makes thee mine, Is quieter than Hope, and happier too. Safe are the treasures of her sober shrine, And even her sweetest oracles are true. Ah, dearest ! Thou and Death have given me all The blessing of a past where Memory finds Nothing she is not thankful to recall — No pain, no bitterness, no tear that blinds, No word that wounds ! Life might have marr'd all this, And spoilt the sweetness Death perpetuates. Now, all that was, unmix'd with all that is, Remains itself, and perfect. The harsh Fates, That menace all things happy, from my heart Thy truth can turn not, nor thy love estrange. Far, far, beloved, beyond my reach thou art. But also far beyond the reach of change ! D 2 36 MARAH Safe from the years and sorrows come and gone Since thou didst go, who never back wilt come, \Vhere is thy home now, unreturning one ? Has the soul anywhere a stable home ? Shall I rejoin thee ever? Shall we meet Once more, beyond the dark and narrow gate Now shut between us ? Or does life still fleet Forever onward, still importunate, And still unpacified, from sphere to sphere, In unreposing progress to no goal ? So that the bliss beyond us speeding here Shall still beyond us speed throughout the whole Vast cycle of infinity, and thou A bliss beyond me still forever be ? I know not. But no Heaven exists, I know, That I can gain without regaining thee. And if this sense of self, wherein we place Life's purpose, be no more than the brief play DEATH Of combinations that in boundless space And endless time shall be dissolved away Into the universal consciousness, Whence for a while it separates us here, Thy soul to mine has granted none the less Some earthly foretaste of a heavenlier sphere ; With this much gain'd — that here a love so fair, So finely wrought, so sensitive as ours, Wither'd not, nor grew coarse, in that bad air Which brings to blossom none but poison-flowers. Safe-hidden, undiscover'd, undefiled In the still past, on thy pure grave I write No name, no date. And here may roses wild With their ungather'd growths conceal it quite ! So shall no curious gossips guess the way My secret footsteps find, escaping oft From life's loud throngs, when here at fall of day They steal in silence thro' the twilight soft. II I GA\E her love : I gave her faith and truth : I gave her adoration, vassalage, And tribute of life's best : the dreams of youth, The deeds of manhood, and the stores of age. She took my gifts, and turn'd them into pain. Each gift she made a bitter curse to be. Then, marr'd, she gave them back to me again. And this is all she ever gave to me. 41 EXPERIENTIA BOCET? I Vain is the experience of the past To guide their steps who rove, By ways each different from the last, The labyrinths of Love ! 2 For no new movements of the heart Reiterate the old. Nor has their tale its counterpart In those by Memory told. 42 MA RAH 3 The records of the pilgrimage Of passion are impress'd Each on the renovated page Of a blanch'd palimpsest. 4 To mock the faith that lovers place In life's acquir'd love-lore, New lessons, latest learn'd, efface Old teachings taught before. 5 And we ourselves within us bear, Tho' to ourselves unknown, New lives, that with new longings wear, New features of their own. EXPERIENTIA DO CRT? 43 6 Thus every love is, of its kind, A first love and a last ; And every time we love, we find That love has had no past. 44 MARAH OMENS AND ORACLES All the phantoms of the future, all the spectres of the past, In the wakeful night came round me, sighing, crying, " Fool, beware ! Check the feeling o'er thee stealing ! Let thy first love be thy last ! Or, if love again thou must, at least this fatal love forbear ! " Marah Atnara ! OMENS AND ORACLES 45 2 Now the dark breaks. Now the lark wakes. Now their voices fleet away. And the breeze about the blossom, and the ripple in the reed, And the beams, and buds, and birds begin to whisper, sing, or say, " Love her, love her, for she loves thee ! " And I know not which to heed. Cava Amnra ! 46 MARAH IDOLATRY To love is to create, down here below, A god on earth ; and for that god do even More than his earthly worshipper can do For the great God in Heaven. But, since naught perfect is on earth, and none Entirely good, the god on earth created Is but a half-divine, half-devilish one ; A god half loved, half hated. IDOL A TR V 47 3 Half loved, half hated, but so all adored That for its favour nothing seems a price Too great ; not even life lost and blood pour'd In human sacrifice. 4 And all ungrudged, for this god's worshipt sake. His heart's blood drop by drop the adorer gives, His life's life hour by hour ; nor shrinks to break The heart of other lives. MAR AH ANTAGONISMS Ah, who can reconcile the Brain and Heart ? Reason and Passion ? Thought and Sentiment ? Genius and Woman ? Far they tend apart, And only meet in terrible dissent. Genius, sufficing to itself, abounds In its own being. Love can but fulfil Its being in another. Woman founds Her power upon the ruins of Man's will. AN-fAGONISMS 49 3 The love she gives him costs a kingdom's price, Tho' freely given the gift. It takes away His grandeur from him. And that sacrifice She neither understands, nor can repay. 50 MAR AH AMARI ALIQUID Dearest, our love is perfect, as love goes ! Your kisses fill my frame and fire my blood ; And nothing fails the sweetness each bestows. Except the joy of being understood. If, for one single moment, once alone, And in no more than one thing only, this Moreover only the most trivial one, You could but understand me — ah, the bliss ! SI ARS AMORIS The world has tangled in its web Love's wings, And to the captive god no freedom grants. Mix'd with material marketable things And social wants, Throughout the struggling ranks of Modern Life Love has become a means of livelihood ; ■\Latter for bargain keen, or envious strife, Like clothes and food. 52 MA RAH 3 And what the Modern Man and Woman try To find in love, or by its means acquire, Is comfort, wealth, respectability, A step set higher 4 On life's throng'd social ladder. Nay, even less A luxury, a vanity, a mode, An attitude, a pastime, a small cess To Custom owed ! 5 ^^'hate'er the gain by these from love expected, Whether its acquisition be in pelf Or pleasure, it is wholly unconnected With love itself. ARS AMORIS 6 For 'tis not love they love, but life provided With what they deem love capable of giving ; And, in the act of loving, each is guided By the art of living. 7 Therefore, O Love, because to all life's plans And projects some promotion thou impartest, Thou still hast many zealous artisans, Tho' not one artist. 54 MAR AH MARAH'S DOWER Two Muses Marah's dower supply, And each a gift bestows : For all her looks are Poetry, And all her feelings Prose. 55 RUBIES AND PEARLS I Ai.L I had to give, I gave her. First my kisses, then my tears. But the httle one would have them not. " What use are they ? " she said. Sad, I went away, and dwelt among the tombs, where da}'s are years, With the Witch that gathers herbs there, and her children who are dead. 2 They and I became companions ; and their dusty shrouds were wet ^^' ith my flowing tears, and warm beneath my kiss their white lips burn'd, S6 MAE AH Till the Witch, whose graveyard-gatherings rare miracles beget. Wrought my kisses into rubies, and my tears to pearls she turn'd. 3 But she drain'd into each ruby's heart from mine a drop of blood, And a purity my spirit lost with every pearl that fell. Then she laugh'd, " Good pearls thy tears are now, thy kisses rubies good. And the proper use of precious stones thy little one knows well." 4 So I took my pearls and rubies to the little one I love, She that loves me not. And, when her pretty eyes beheld them, wild RUBIES AND PEARLS 57 Beat her little heart with e-agerness its pride in them to prove, And she kiss'd and kiss'd me, weeping tears of pleasure like a child. 5 Still she wears them, still she shows them to her lovers with delight. And her little heart would break, I think, if one of ■ them were lost ; For the sweetest of its pleasures is the envy they excite. And 'tis spoilt by no suspicion of the price that they have cost. 58 MA RAH DREAMS A LAND of luminous azure, glowing green, And purple, and roseate gold, fiU'd everywhere With fervid colour and light ; and all things seen Clear thro' a lucid calm of cloudless air : The rippled sapphires of a summer sea, Steep'd in the sunshine of a southern sky, \\'ashing warm bowery bays where tree to tree Loose roses link'd with labyrinthine tie : DREAMS 59 3 Among them glimmer'd many a statued flight Of marble stairs, beneath the twinkling gloss Of blossom-laden boughs : and streams shone white, Streaking green glens faint rainbows roof 'd across : 4 Seaward on sunny slopes a little town Sparkled with terraced streets, where all day long A glad-faced folk went sauntering up and down. Whose talk was tuned to some soft foreign tongue : 5 Foreign, at least, their tongue to me and you ; For you and I, dropp'd who knows how down here. Were strangers from afar ; and so we two To one another had grown strangely near. 6o MA RAH 6 All this I dream'd. Then woke, and with dim gaze Saw, thro' the window-curtains half withdrawn, Wan street-lamps film'd beneath a frozen haze, And snow-flakes falling in the wintry dawn. 7 And all at once, with a recurrent pain, I realised how far away. you were, How near at hand my troubles ! And then again I slept, and dream'd. Ah, what a change was there ! 8 Nor sea nor land this time. No nature. All Was artificial. For I stood, methought, In a vast house of many mansions : hall Succeeding hall : huge chambers, richly wrought. DREAMS 6 1 9 In clear communication each with each, Thro' muhitudes of doors set open wide, And ht by windows so far out of reach That they reveal'd not anything outside. Around me, here and there, and to and fro, A wistful crowd continually went. I knew them not. Nor did they seem to know Each other. All were silent : each intent On his own business, or his own design. No care had I to guess what that might be ; For I was equally intent on mine. Heedless of others as thev were of me. 62 MAR AH 12 And conscious all the while, I knew not how, That somewhere in this house, among that crowd, I was to find you ; tho' no sign to show Where was vouchsaf d me, and no guide allow'd. 13 So, on, through those innumerable doors, Door after door, in search of you I pass'd, And over those interminable floors, Floor after floor, with steps that hasten'd fast, 14 And fiercely beating heart. But nowhere you. Nor any trace of you ! And time went by. The light began to fail, my courage too. And then I noticed all were gone but I. DREAMS 6i 15 Gone! By what means? Impossible to guess ! For go, I could not. Each room only led Into another room. A wilderness Of rooms and rooms on all sides round me spread ! 16 To deep discouragement succeeded fear — A fear lest I forever should remain \\'andering about in that mad maze of drear And darkening halls ! I knew my search was vain 17 And that I should not ever find you there. My one thought was to get away — get back To the outer world, and nature, and fresh air. Vain thought I The night, that crept upon my track, 64 MARAH i8 ^^'as bringing with it who could say what strange New horror ? And still wandering, still astray, I roam'd and roani'd that never-ending range Of rooms and rooms, whence still there was no waj'. 19 Door after door I tried. No door was shut. But door to door succeeded, hall to hall. None to my flight did any barrier put, But egress was in turn denied by all. I turn'd, despairing, to the windows. These Might favour flight, I hoped, if once attain'd. But no ! For they receded by degrees As I advanced, and out of reach remain'd. DREAMS 65 At last I noticed, close at hand, what seem'd A shut door in the wall. And " Here, perchance, From this bewildering labyrinth," I deem'd, " May be some means for my deliverance ! " I push'd the latchet, hope with fear and doubt Contending. The door open'd. From the shelf Of some dark cupboard it disclosed, sprang out A corpse. I knew it. 'Twas my own dead Self 23 And my dead Self pursued me. Fast I fled. But fast it follow'd. Its sepulchral breath Clung like a cloud about me. It was dead. And yet unnaturally alive in death. 66 MARAH 24 The Itorror and the terror of it grew Until they reach'd the point of madness. Then The whole wild vision from my sense withdrew, And, spent and faint, I lay awake again ; 25 But still in fear lest on me sleep should glide, And again fix me with its ghostly fetter, A doubting hand I stretch'd to the bedside. And there I found (thrice woe is me !) your letter. 26 Your dreadful letter, with its heartless words ! A trance my life since that sick moment seems. Whence never any waking hour affords Release from days far worse than night's worst dreams. 67 FIGURES OF SPEECH I Ah, still even strangers' lips renew The magic of your name ! .Last night, when some one spoke of you, I felt my blood turn flame. 2 Your fair friend said, " Tho' so besought. And so admired, how free From vanity, how pure in thought. And true in deed, is she ! F 2 68 MARAH 3 " Her soul's ev'n fairer than her face. Do yoic not think so too ? " And with beatified grimace I hed, and said, " I do." 69 THE ONL V DIFFERENCE I deem'd you truest of the true, And loved you. Now I see That you were treacherous thro' and thro', And love you still, woe's me ! The only difference is this : The gilt is off the chain, And what was once a golden bliss Is now an iron pain. 70 MAR AH ONE ROSE INIv blessing on you, roses, all save one ! Curst be the blood-red rose she used to wear In those fierce summers that have slain my sun, To lure love to her bosom and her hair ! 2 The past's spent torments does that rose renew. Hot from my heart its hated petals take The blood that gives them their ensanguined hue. And all my life is paler for its sake. 71 BY THE GATES OF HELL I Where the shadow of darkness darkest fell In the Valley of Tears, by the Gates of Hell, I was 'ware of an old man, wan as a ghost. He was bitterly weeping : and there for years, By the Gates of Hell, in the Valley of Tears, He had wept and wept for a loved one lost. " Be consoled ! " I said. *' For the Gates of Hell Thou hast pass'd not yet, and the griefs that dwell In the Valley of Tears, be they ne'er so sore, Vet by little and little they pass away. And by little and little there comes a day \A'hen the day that was is a grief no more." 72 MA RAH 3 " I have pass'd thro' worse than the Gates of Hell, And I know," he said, " that for those 'tis well Who are weeping the loved one lost by death. For by little and little their grief goes by, And the dead are forgot, and the living will die. And a hope still lingers the grave beneath. 4 But as bitter and fierce as the pangs of Hell (For there is not a hope in their long farewell) Are the tears that are shed, on no grave that's seen For the loss of a loved one lost by life. And each tortures the heart, like a burning knife. With the trace of a day that in vain has been." 73 WHEN ALL LS OVER When you and I are dead, when all is over, Life's long confusions clear'd, love's trials past, The truth, they hid and hurt, will you discover, And know and understand me at the last ? When all is over ! 2 And will you then be sad for all I suffer'd ? You, to whose trusted hand's mistrustful blow This poor wrong'd heart's defenceless fondness offer'd So safe a mark ! ^\'ill you be sad to know The pain it suffer'd ? 74 MARAH 3 If so, perchance what might have been, and was not, You then will honour more than what has l)een ; And life, when lost, will have what now it has not, Your wish, at least, that its set suns had seen The day that was not. 4 That was not, but that would have been, my dearest, Had you had faith in it, or faith in me ! For that day's dawn, tho' long delay'd, was nearest Just when you chose that it should never be Our day, my dearest. 5 If, even when all is over, still you never Will know or understand, then must I pray WHEN ALL IS OVER 75 That death be one long dreamless sleep forever, If more than now you know, you never may, Still never, never ! But if you know at last, and sigh to know it Too late, that sigh will all my pain requite. Better too late than never ! Could death show it, I think 'twould, even then, set all things right To know you know it. Ill If thou art still a griefless girl or boy, In love with life, and ignorant of love's grave. Read not herein ! For thee no gift have I, And be thou thankful that no gift I have ! But if time's wayworn traveller thou art, Hail, pilgrim ! 'Tis for thee this book was writ. The same sad pilgrimage, tho' far apart. We two have made, and know the pain of it. 79 LIFE What is life ? The incessant desiring Of a joy that is never acquired ; And, instead of that joy, the acquiring Of enjoyments that are not desired. So MARAH SEMPER EADEM The years go by. They bring no change, but only The curse of custom, adding length to grief, And pressure to the crowd that makes more lonely The lone heart's changeless longing for relief Relief from wretched memories of things lost, Relief in words that find no utterance now, Relief from dead love's still undying ghost, Relief in tears that Ions; have ceased to flow ! SEMTER EADEM Si 3 O could I weep, weep, weep away this weight Of tearless, time-worn, inarticulate pain. Whose heavy burden no blest hopes abate ! O for release, rest, death ! In vain, in vain ! 82 MAR AH FIRELIGHT A FEELING to-night comes o'er me That once in this hearth's dim gleam I was happy beyond all dreaming, But it may have been only a dream. A dream or a memory is it, That here in the same soft glow ']'\vo entranced ones nestled together, And that I was one of the two? FIRELIGHT 83 3 I seem to remember a gladness That haunted of old this spot. But was it mine or another's ? Ah, that I remember not ! 84 MARAH GHOSTS We died, she and I, the same day. That I know ; Tho' we died, I remember not when ; But together we died ; and I cannot guess how We are here with the hving again. We ought to be both in our graves ; and this much I can tell by the shuddering thrill That a dead corpse feels at the casual touch Of a corpse more inaniipate still. cnosTs But spells wc obey, and are bound by their guile, Dead and gone tho' we be, to contrive For the sake of appearance to chatter and smile. And pretend to be feeling alive. 4 I know, little friend, tho' defunct, you can do \\'ith the smallest allowance of rest. 'Twas the joy of your life to be seen, and to go About everywhere, daintily dress'd. 5 \'ou never were glad to get early to bed ; And this constantly gadding about, As )ou liked it alive, may have charms for you dead. But for me — it is wearing me out ! 86 MA RAH Do, dear, for the sake of the days that are gone, Put me back in my coffin and pall ! Nothing black for my burial need you put on, Nor be miss'd from the liveliest ball. 7 From asking the living to lend me a hand To get back to my grave, I refrain ; For I fear lest the living should misunderstand What 'tis hard for the dead to explain. But you are as little alive, dear, as I. And I have not a sister or brother To vouchsafe me this service. Nor can you deny That the dead have a claim on each other. 87 NUNC STANS An, the dead they ma} bury their dead. The unborn bring to birth their unborn, But, ere hfe's flitting minute be fled, Let us Hve, and laugh sorrow to scorn ! Past and Future, the permanent states Of the fugitive Present, fleet fast With its flight, that in flying creates The fixt forms of the Future and Past. as MA RAH 3 Borne along in its boundless embrace, The brief moments the centuries span ; And thro' time, as his shadow thro' space, Does the Present accompany man. 89 PER VERSITY Restless, unthankful, in a heaven all shining With lights serene my fever'd spirit doth dwell ; And wild thro' Paradise it wanders, pining J'or the hot feasts of Hell. 90 MARAH HA UNTED For years (How many years ? To me they seem'd Hundreds of thousands. With eternity Of torment every moment of them teem'd !) The all-enduring slave of Pain was I. At last, this servitude to suffering grew Grievous beyond endurance. I arose, And in revolt my tyrant, Pain, I slew. A secret, dark, and hollow spot I chose Among the ruin'd places of the past. And buried murder'd Pain there. Then I went Forth, an emancipated slave at last, And mingled with the world, and was content, HAUNTED 91 And feasted, and made merry ; laughing, " This Is hfe, and life is beautiful again ! " But in mid-revel I began to miss Something which I had buried with dead Pain. I knew not what : but for the want of it I could not take my pleasure as before In pleasant things. A shadow seem'd to flit Beside me, always sighing, " Nevermore ! " So from the revellers I stole away Homeward. And here upon my hearth I found A Spectre sitting. It was husht, and grey, And ghastly. Its dim hooded brows were bound With poisonous nightshade. A cold hand it laid Upon me. My soul sicken'd. Helplessly 1 groan'd, " What art thou ? " and the Spectre said, " The ghost of Pain, whose name is now Ennui ! " 92 MA RAH EPISODE I LOVE thy body better than thy soul. I love thy beauty better than thy heart. To me the part is dearer than the whole Of all thou art. For our lips naturally meet : but not Our natures, not our thoughts. Far, far from thine My spirit wanders lone. Thy heart hath got No key to mine. EPISODE 93 3 And 'tis adultery I commit with thee : .For to another woman I am wed ; Tho', save in dreams, her face I shall not see Till I am dead. 4 ^Ve miss'd each other in the porch of Birth, And there took different ways : mine earthward set And hers I know not whither. But on earth We have never met. 94 MARAH LIES Ah, let me gaze still silent in those eyes, Nor ask me what my soul is seeking there ! Tho' all that there is sought and found be lies, If you and I on their false witness swear Our love is love forever, were it wise To test a fraud that is for both so fair ? Faith in it turns to treasures that I prize, The faint scent breathing from your fawn-brown hair And foam-white throat ; the subtle mysteries Of mellow shadow that have each its lair LIES 95 In your lip's dimple ; or the rose that dies Along your cheek's smooth curve ; and the rich air Haunted with flutterings of entranced surprise Round the warm edges of white vesture where Those shy feet peep. Nor are the sorceries Of this sweet fraud mine only. For you share The fervid fascinations that arise From wishes sure to wither if it were Too soon mistrusted. Love's grand tragedies Leave we, with all the pomps of their despair. To souls heroic ! Why should we despise (^Ve, whose hearts unheroically care More for the moments than the eternities) Even the least of little joys, whate'er Their source, that flush one minute as it flies With radiant fervours of effulgence rare? And if fond fancies aid them to disguise 96 MA RAH Their fleeting earthliness in forms that wear The hues of heaven (Hke wavelets, distant skies Paint as they pass), need fretful forethought tear From their poor wings those borrow'd pageantries? What if some thunder-cloud soon quench the flare Wherewith Desire's small bonfires humanise One spot in the wide desert, whence they scare The savage beast ? No star whose beam supplies Guidance or light, along the dark we dare In blind pursuit of unknown destinies. Will perish with it. Nor does Fate declare Her will beforehand, tho' besought with sighs. And groans, and tears, and supplicative prayer. A miser's thrift is in each mad surmise That starves the present for the thankless heir. Who knows what plagues the future may devise For those whose craft its blessings would ensnare ? Life's end may be to-night. The hour that hies LIES 97 Is, while it Lasts, life's all. So, if I swear I love you, ask not what the oath implies, But swear you love me also. We should fare No better for the doubts that oath defies. How sad were life, if bitter truth went bare ! And what were love itself without such lies ? 9S MARAH LOVE'S LABOUR LOST I In the old Piazza at Florence a statue of David stands. 'Tis the masterful work of IMichael Angelo's marvellous art, Yet a failure nevertheless : for it came to the master's hands, Not a virgin block intact, but already rough -hewn in part. 2 And what Mino da Fiesole did to it, Angelo could not undo. So the work was but half his own. It is finish'd, yet mcomplete. LOVE'S LABOUR LOST 99 As that statue to Michael Angelo hundreds of years ago, So are you at this moment to me : an achievement, and yet a defeat ! 3 'Tis that others have been before me, 01 whose touch you retain the trace. You are half my work, half theirs. Thro' your spirit and flesh disperst Is the mark of a love not mine, that my own love cannot efface. For you were not virgin marble when you came to my hands at first. MAR AH HORACE AND LYDIA {Modern) He You ask me, " Do I love you ? " Yes. " What grace in you my worsliip wins?" None. " Why, then, do I love you ? " Guess Why does the sinner love his sins ? The drunkard his habitual dram ? The gambler counters, cards, and dice ? A slave to vicious wants I am, And you are my inveterate vice. She Impertinent ! HORACE AND LYDIA He For truth you call, Truth, and truth only. My reply, Tho' it offend you She He Not at all ! \Vas, every word of it She A lie ! He No ! She Yes ! For all of flaming fire Your fancy is, your heart all ice. MARAH He Granted. That means that my desire Is vicious ; you, its object, vice. She No. It means only, thankless friend. That your desire has flights insane. And I, beyond whose reach they tend, Know that the goal they seek is vain. Your dupe I am not. You deceive Yourself, it may be, but not me, AVhen you aver, perhaps believe, You love me. Ah, but you would be As litde to my liking then x\s all the others are, if you (In nothing else like other men) Did, or could, love me as they do ! HORACE AiVD LYDIA 103 You do not love me. I suggest Love fancies. Each for each is full Of riddles that remain half guess'd. And doubt, at least, is never dull. You ought to feel, could you but share jMy wisdom, thankful I am not The woman that you wish I were. To take delight in such a lot As your caprice for love provides, A woman should be either blind And a born innocent besides, Or else of a perverted mind — Like me ! Who deign with cheerfulness To be the subject, tho' I know That of your singular caress I never was the object. No ! There lives no woman you could love Fairly, for love's sake : tho' from each I04 MARAH You crave in turn what soars above, Or fleets beyond, a woman's reach. Ay, and a man's reach, too ! For this Ferocious idol, this Afar, This phantom fetish, from a kiss Could never yet create a star ! He True. All its miracles require The faith of two believers. One Suffices not. And I aspire In vain, for I aspire alone. Our aims accord not. Mine, that was High to uplift us both, has fail'd. Yours was to drag me down. Alas, And it is yours that has prevail'd ! HORACE AND LYDIA 105 She To drag you down ! You found me here Where you were glad to find me, I To welcome you. My natural sphere I keep. Its hospitality You sought, and all ungrudged 'twas given ; Nor did you spare the proffer'd feast. If, just because earth is not Heaven, I make the best of earth, at least For the best gift earth has to give Let us be thankful ! Me you blame, And you I tease ; yet we contrive To charm each other all the same. Earth's child am I, for Heaven unfit. But I deserve some earthly praise For kindliness, good looks, and wit, Altho' not wings I wear, but stays. io6 MA RAH All my past lovers I have spoil'd For other women. Here on earth You will not find my better. Foil'd Beforehand, seek ! I know my worth. After me, nothing ! Search all round, What is there left to find ? He What they, The Poet and the Sage, have found : The Abstract ! She Has the Abstract, pray, Lips, limbs, and life? You will but find Another woman, and a worse. With faults as little to your mind, Tho' not the same as mine, of course. HORACE AND LYDIA 107 He I came into your life too late, And found you thus, completely made. I needs must either love or hate The thing you are without my aid. And I would be a maker. She Friend, Nature would be beforehand still With all your work. Defeats attend The usurpations of her will. Perfection clothed in petticoats Is youth's Chimsera. This sad truth Your poets sing in mournful notes. Your sages preach. The fault of youth io8 MARAH Is always to exaggerate, And therefore miss the mark. Between Life's two extremes, in me kind Fate Accords you now the golden mean. If one you found with warmer blood Than mine is, she would be less fair. Another's milk-white maidenhood Would lack intelligence. Beware ! To us complacent circumstance Is well disposed. Our fates are free. And I would be your last romance. As you are my first poem. See ! He Ah, sceptic, cease ! I can nor fight Nor fly the field. Your lips and eyes Disarm my reasonings. You are right. And they are wrong. Be yours the prize HORACE AND LYDIA 109 That Pallas ever fails to win ! Lay your hand on my heart once more ! What is it beats so wild within, If love it be not ? She Shut the door ! MARAH FUGIENS IMAGO I I HAVE seen her, O how often I have seen her, but to see Her mysterious evanescence, at a glance, a touch, a tone, And how often, O how often, has my heart exclaim'd, " 'Tis she ! " When, in turning to embrace her, I discover'd she was gone ! 2 Gone as soon as greeted ! Lost as soon as found I And then again All the search for her to recommence, discouraged, otherwhere ! FUGIENS IMAGO iii All the doubt, " Will not the next search, as the last was, be in vain ? ^^^as it she herself, or only a mirage of painted air ? " 3 Nay ! I could not be mistaken, could not see her and not know. Could not take for her another ! I, whose life has all been pass'd In predicting her arrival, be its coming ne'er so slow. And rejoicing in her presence, be its going ne'er so fast ! 4 In the moment that I saw her, she was there. This much is sure. All the rest may be illusion ; all the time that went before. 112 MA RAH All the time that follow'd after ! For 'tis falsehoods that endure, It is truth that, coming, going, lasts a moment and no more. 5 She is gone, and I have lost her ! Yet a little while ago She was there ; and for a moment in your eyes I saw her smile, In your voice I caught her accents, on your lips I felt the glow Of her kiss, and I am certain she was there, tho' but a while. 6 Had you recognised her also, had you known her as I knew. It had then been well for both of us. But, thro' some fault in each, FUG I ENS IMAGO 113 Now the search for her, you cannot aid, must all begin anew, And the moment we retain'd not is already out of reach. 7 Hush ! No vain recriminations ! Life has years to count upon, But for love are moments only. Love, that all the whiles between. Looking forward to their coming, or recalling them when gone, Bears two names : the one, " I shall be ! " and the other, " I HAVE been ! " 114 MARAH STILL I I HAVE invok'd with songs, and sued with tears, A love still unresponsive to my call. To find it, I have roam'd the waste of years ; To win it, spent my all Yet still do I believe in it, still cherish An unrequited faith, and in the fume Of fires unblest, that on its altars perish, Life's substance still consume ; STILL 115 3 Like some poor alchemist, whose days have pin'd In bondage to bright dreams that but betray'd, Still raking ruin'd crucibles to find The gold he never made. ii6 MA RAH SELENE White Moon, forth-pouring floods of pallid fire From founts that leave thy sallow orb forever Ravaged and sear'd, and worn with wan desire, But fervid never ! Bless the pale pleasures of my love and me, Whose day of life, like thine, is the dark night ! From all the world I have chosen one like thee For my delight. SELENE 117 3 No burning pulse her livid beauty warms. But light that maddens the moon-stricken brain Is in her looks, and in her cold white arms Are dreams insane. 4 Like thine her chill enchantments ! And like thine My wistful vigils ! And of all we are, Each to the other, the sidereal sign Is thy weird star. 5 Hushful, as o'er the bosom of the deep Thou bendest, all night long I bend above The soul that in her beauty lies asleep, Dreaming of love. ii8 MA RAH Dreaming of love, not loving ! Laid in trance That waits the awakening touch of some caress Not yet divined for its deliverance, And still to guess. 7 Guide with the ghostly lamp's soul-reaching ray, Desire's meandrous labyrinths among, My slow sweet search, enamour'd of delay. And lingering long ! My slow sweet search that dreads yet craves the goal It seeks by ways bewilderingly dense With dim delights, whose languors lap the soul In charm'd suspense ! SELENE 119 9 She whom I love has from the dawn of time Been love's despair. All pleasure and all pain Her breath begets. All virtue and all crime Are her domain. Her intricate charm is like a magic maze, ^^'hose central secret never can be found By any of the interminable ways That wind it round. The perilous realms of Unreality Her witchcraft rules. And my pale paramour Fills all their phantom forms, from her faint sigh, With strenuous power. MARAH Fierce are the Solar Daughters of the South, Faint, and a Lunar Witch, my leman is. The North's lone mystery lingers on her mouth, And chills her kiss. 13 The sun is in their veins, as in the vine : The moon in hers, as in a sorcerer's cruce, Has mingled dews and dreams. Their blood is wine Hers, morphian juice. 14 And I have drunk of it. And in her eyes I have beheld, and on her lips pursued, Passion's most mystical epiphanies ; With faith renew 'd SELENE IS In the voluptuous chastities of vice — Virginities of sin in joys restrain'd, Fruits of the imperishable paradise Of the Unattain'd ! MARAH TRA VEILING A CQ UAINTANCES On my road at the dawn of day Joy accosted me, passing me by. We were both of us going one way ; But, alas, he went faster than I, And in vain I besought him to stay. " Prithee speed not," I panted, " so fast, Fellow-traveller ! Fain would I be TRAVELLING ACQUAINTANCES Thy companion, and share to the last The long course of my journey with thee ! Never pausing, however, he pass'd. 3 " We can fare not together," he cried, "Any farther. But do not despond ! We may meet yet again." And I sigh'd, " Where again may I meet thee ? " " Beyond ! " Joy, pointing his finger, replied. 4 " A remembrance," he murmur'd, " meanwhile ('Tis the best that my passage bestows) I bequeath thee, sad days to beguile." And he flung me a half-wither'd rose ; Ar>d was gone with a nod and a smile. 124 MA RAH On I went, till the noon had wax'd hot. Then I came to a blossoming grove. There, alone in a flowery spot, I was suddenly greeted by Love. But I trembled, and answer'd him not. For his face was the face of a stranger, And I seem'd to myself to be there A forbidden and trespassing ranger. And, beholding Love's weapons, "Beware ! " Said my heart to me. " Here there is danger. TRAVELLING ACQUAINTANCES 125 But the whisper of Love was so sweet, And the spell of his beauty so strong, And with welcome so warm did he greet, And so tenderly drew me along, That I fell down faint at his feet. INIerry butterflies hither and thither Were a-wooing. Sweet birds caroU'd clear. All around, it was midsummer weather. And I said, " This is Paradise ! Here Let us linger forever together ! " 126 MARAH W^ith a frown Love averted his face, And his voice took a menacing tone, As he struggled to break mine embrace, Crying, " Loose me, for I must be gone ! I have hnger'd too long from the chase." " If thou lea vest me, what shall I do ?" I cried, clinging, imploring, and fond. " And ah, whither away wouldst thou go ? " Love impatiently answer'd, " Beyond ! " And the sunshine seem'd turned into snow. TRAVELLING ACQUAINTANCES 127 "If," I wept, "thy last word has been spoken, Cruel fugitive, ere thou depart. Leave me one little lingering token ! " Then he struck me a blow at the heart, And I felt in it something was broken. 12 I arose, sick, and faint, and in pain, But still, staggering, onward I went. Till the sun was low down, and the plain Sad and cold, and its colours all spent. And the daylight beginning to wane. 1 28 MAR AH 13 Rough and hard was the way, tho' down hill ; And my feet were both weary and sore ; And the road I was journeying still Had a narrower track than before ; And the twilight hung heavy and chill. 14 Where around me the long shadows lay, And the path became doubtful and dim, I was met by a traveller grey ; And his aspect was furtive and grim, Like a beast's that is prowling for prey. TRAVELLING ACQUAINTANCES 129 15 He approach'd me, and seized, and embraced. As he cried to me, " Welcome at last ! It is late, but I am not in haste, And we too have no need to go fast. Thou art weary, and I am slow-paced." 16 " Of my hand," I groan'd, writhing, " let go ! " For I neither could loosen nor bear The cold pressure of his. But, "Ah, no ! " The grey traveller said. " I am Care. Love and Joy have gone from thee, I know. I30 AIARAH 17 But my fingers hold faster," said he, "Than the bite of an adamant bond." "Is there nowhere, then, refuge from thee?" I exclaim'd in despair. And " Beyond," He said faintly, " perchance there may be ! " IV I HAVE search'd the universe, beneath, above, And everywhere with this importunate lyre Have wander'd desperately seeking Love, But everywhere have only found Desire. I have prob'd the spheres above, the spheres beneath. Their dim abysms have echo'd to my shout Invoking Truth. But time, space, life, and death, And joy, and sorrow, only answer'd " Doubt ! " 133 SEA WARD The green grows ever greyer as we pass ; The lean soil sandier ; the spacious air More breezy ; raggeder the bristly grass ; And the few crooked leafless trees more rare. And now nor grass, nor trees ! But only stones Tufted with patches of wild rosemary And spurge. Behind them hidden, something moans : And large white birds come with a questioning cry. 134 MA RAH 3 AVhat's there, beyond ? A thing unsearch'd and strange ; Not happier, but different. Something vast And new. Some unimaginable change From what has been. Perchance the end at last ? 135 NO C TURN Roll, waves ! To rest refused I too aspire. Weep, clouds ! I too shed tears that fall in vain. Lightnings, illuminate ye my drear desire ! Thunder, be thou the echo of my pain ! Black-shrouded midnight, shuddering with cold sighs. And fearful with faint creepings, gather all Thy ghosts and spectres ! Bid them each devise New horrors to adorn thy sable hall i 136 MAR AH 3 For the drear drama the drear stage prepare, Deck it with deluge, garland it with storm, Assemble all the Powers of Darkness there, And what I suffer let them then perform ! 4 Not long will they their fleeting parts sustain In the fixt misery I endure alone. To-morrow's sun will scatter to-night's rain ; When comes the dawn the darkness will be gone 5 To-morrow will the storm its force have spent ; But mine will be to-morrow and to-morrow The same unutterable discontent, Stung by the same intolerable sorrow ! ^2,7 OCEAN US Like a strong, beautiful, ill-used wild beast, The Ocean, caged between its craggy shores, Stretches its long limbs out, with panting breast, And rolls, and roars. 2 Its large lair is for its large life too small. For here are the world's waters all in one, And all the sounds of all the nations, all In a single tone ! 138 MARAH 3 Hark ! With the monstrous murmurs of the Pnyx Here do a hundred thousand htanies From Christendom's cathedral organs mix ; And here the sighs 4 Breathed by a milHon breaking hearts are heard ; Here the long roar of the fierce Roman crowd Comes rolling Capitolian echoes, stirr'd To response loud 5 ^^'hen Caesar graced the gladiatorial show, And from the reeking circus rose to him The death-shriek of the doom'd who died below, Torn limb from limb. OCEAN us 139 6 Harken again ! A whisper from afar, Faint, but how fearful ! Like the sighing breath Of some phgue -smitten city, a red star Scorches to death. 7 But from the silence the sound preys upon It gathers strength, and breaks into low thunder As of a huge host heavily marching on, Laden with plunder. 8 Italy, when the midnight moons went down Long ages since upon her dark blue plains. Heard it, and shudder'd. Heard the tongues un- known, The rumbling wains. I40 MA RAH 9 The riot of barbarian vanquishers, The mountains moving to the Ostian shore Over those beautiful bruised limbs of hers, With an ominous roar. Ay ! All earth's sounds, on all earth's waters borne, Meet here in dreadful interchange. And over Ocean's drear bosom, beating wings forlorn, Lost echoes hover. The echoes of all sorrows and all crimes Suffer'd or perpetrated long ago In miserable old remorseless times Of sin and woe. OCEAN us 141 Therefore does terror haunt thy sohtude, Dread Sea ! And all its melancholy waves And mountainous billows, by wild ghosts pursued, Are wandering graves. 13 Yet 'mid thy moanings multitudinous A silenced song's pathetic echo floats, Slight but still sweet. What is it moves me thus In those low notes ? 14 It is that in a hoher happier time The harp of Orpheus lull'd thy lyric shores, And thou hast listen'd to the rhythmic chime Of Argo's oars : 142 MARAH It is that Aphrodite's natal morn Beheld her borne upon thine azure breast, And once thy furrow'd desert, now forlorn, Was Alcyon's nest. 143 A LOST CHANCE The glimpses of the moon with fitful lights, That flash'd and fled between swift cloud-drifts sweeping, Strew'd all the dark sea. And the Water Sprites Merrily in those moony gleams were leaping. I saw them, and amongst them saw again The little Mermaid that, long years ago, Taught me sea- magic, many a mystic strain Of Siren song, and all the spells I know. 144 MAR AH 3 All that she taught me, in the unmagical Monotonously wakeful world wherein, Toiling and moiling, I have wasted all My after-years in sadness that was sin, 4 I had forgotten, and her too. But she Was looking just as when I saw her last. Not here, but by that other happier sea Where we were playmates in the painless past. 5 And when I saw and recognised her there, The old song, all at once, and the old spell Came back to me. Along the moonlit air She sigh'd and beckon'd. I remember'd well A LOST CHANCE 145 6 The word I was to utter when we met, And half gave voice to it. But suddenly A cloud closed up the moon, and black as jet Became the solid darkness of the sky. 7 The vision vanish'd. I no longer felt Sure of the word. The night was full of doubt And fear. And I was conscious that there dwelt In its black bosom secrets not made out By any magic I had learn'd of old. So, passive, in suspense I stood, nor stirr'd, While o'er my soul the darkness closed its hold As a hand closes on a frighten'd bird. L 146 MA RAH SATURNALIA Hid in the heaviest dark, a mystery Within a mystery, the sea augments Night's witchcraft with its shadowy sound ; the sigh Of an uneasy silence, that half vents In sobs and gasps the dreadful secrecy Of its contents ! And yet another mystery haunts the night : The uncouth, phantasmal, bodiless return Of Chaos. That which was before the li2;ht SA TURN A LI A 147 Comes back when light departs, and the deep urn Of darkness voids confusions infinite That seethe and yearn. 3 All spectres now resume their dim domain. A shrouded dream is passing o'er the deep. The scatter'd clusters of effaced stars wane Behind a livid film. The shuddering heap Of waters hoarser breathes. Athwart my brain Vast shadows sweep. 4 My waking self sinks from me. In its place There comes a sense of preternatural force Freed from thought's timid tyranny. The chase Begins. The phantom bugles blow. To horse ! I mount the Nightmare. Fleet thro' time and space Speeds our wild course ! 148 MA RAH 5 Where are we hurrying, they and I ? And they, Who are they ? We shall find each other out As we go on, perhaps, and by the way Discover also what we are about. Heavens ! Is it you ? How came you here astray In such a rout ? They told me you were settled down in life, Well married, living far away from here In your own country, a good happy wife And mother, virtue's model, a sincere Church-goer, all whose decent days were rife With heavenly cheer. SATURNALIA 149 7 Yet here you are to-night, without a blush, Stark naked, riding furious at my side The Devil's own charger ! Foremost in the push Of this fierce crowd, and no attempt to hide Your unashamed enjoyment of the rush Of our wild ride ! 8 ^Vho is it you were laughing with just now Before you join'd me? The tall woman there. With the gold fillet glittering on her brow, And those large long-lash'd eyes, and bosoms bare? What is it hanging from her saddle bow By a tress of hair ? ISO MAR AH 9 Stay ! Now she has it in her hands. It is A dead man's head. And how her burning eyes Gloat on its horror ! How her red Hps kiss Those white ones ! Yes, 'tis she. I recognize Herodias. But you never told me this. Who could surmise That you were old associates ? And you, ^^'hom have you loved to death, that you should be Here in such company ? Yon couple, too ? She with the man asleep upon her knee ? Asleep, or dead ? A nail is driven thro' His forehead. See ! SATURNALIA 151 ^^'ith what still rapture her white fingers rove Among his matted curls, as low she bends Her glowing gaze his upturn'd face above, Husht as a watchful mother when she tends Her sick child, luU'd to sleep with songs of love ! So you are friends ? I noticed that the woman, as we pass'd, Nodded to you encouragingly. Drums And cymbals ! Hark ! Behind us prancing fast, Here, w-ith the head of Holofernes, comes Dame Judith, bravely dress'd ! And now, the vast Black midnicht hums 132 MARAH With a mysterious far-off music. Songs Unholy, soft lascivious Lydian lyres, Shrill Phrygian pipes, and throbbing Scythian gongs, In wizard concert where, round monstrous fires, The redden'd gloom reveals dim dancing throngs. And loose-robed choirs. 14 O hasten ! Hasten ! If we get not there Before the dawn breaks, we shall be undone ! Our steeds flag, and we still have far to fare. Flog the jade fast ! The revel has begun. Faster ! Our names are call'd. Death and despair Too late .... the Sun ! ^53 PERTURB A TION Greyer and dimmer grow the dim grey bounds Of the leaden twihght, salter the sea's breath, And harsher, angrier, the low moan that sounds Yon crass beneath. The unquiet sea-birds seem unquietcr, And more importunate their plaintive quest. About the sullen beach begins to stir A vague unrest. 154 MAR AH 3 Sightless has set the ineffectual sun. There is no moon, no star, no visible cloud. But land, and sky, and sea are swathed in one Sepulchral shroud. 4 And now that shroud is troubled, tho' unrent. There comes a menacing movement from afar. And sounds as of a distant armament Arming for war 5 It is as tho' the elements — earth, air, And water — each in its own camp aloof, Were furtively beginning to prepare And put to proof PER TURBA TION 1 5 5 6 Each its own weapons, or to organize Each its own forces, for some strife impending. Swift silent signals for the winds to rise The air is sending. 7 The sea is gathering from the outer deep Its heavier waves. Like some beleaguer'd giant, The land is setting fast on cliff and steep A front defiant. 8 And coldly, shudderingly, creepily. With these awakenings of the torpid pain Pent in the pallid land, the pallid sky, The pallid main. 156 MAR AH 9 My heart begins to move once more, and be Again the battle-field of ghastly hosts At war with one another, and with me. Legions of ghosts ! Yet will the abortive stir beginning now Change or determine nothing. When 'tis o'er, Heaven, earth, and sea, and I, will all, I know, Be as before. Rest, wretched slaves of Nature, whose mad zest Of movement makes the curse that you inherit Harder to bear ! Rest, winds and waves ! Rest, rest. Perturbed Spirit ! 157 STORM ^^' HAT is there here of aught experience knows, Or language names ? This movement without form Of hideous power in unproductive throes ? Storm ! Is it storm ? But Hke no storm I have ever heard of, seen Portray'd in pictures, read about in books, Or dream'd in sleep, the interminable scene Of sameness looks. 1 58 MA RAH 3 There is no storm-rack visible. There are No thunders audible. There is no play Of forkt ethereal fires, no lurid glare, Nothing but grey ! 4 Grey everywhere, grey always ! Day and night For what seems ages long have ceased to be ; And there is neither darkness nor yet light On land or sea. 5 Nothing but grey ! One part of it is air, Another water, and another earth. But of all shape and colour these three share A common dearth. STOKM 159 Some horrible impulse moves the whole grey mass, Wrapped in such rain as no resemblance bears To any other rain that ever was. For this appears 7 A firmamental flood, that forward speeds ; Forward, not downward ; and in sheets, not drops ; Whose sweeping surge in a plain course proceeds, And never stops. There are no clouds, but all is cloudiness There are no winds, but all the wide grey sky, Borne on the wide grey rain in mad distress, Is rushing by. 1 60 MAR AH 9 There are no waves, but all the wide grey Ocean Jerks up and down with the recurrent thumj) Of a monotonous mechanical motion, In a livid lump. From that mechanical motion comes a groan As of some mighty engine -beam or screw, Rcnew'd each moment with no change of tone. Mechanical too ! Mechanical, and yet with life at least Enough in it to make its meaningless cry . More maddening than all noise of man, or beast, Or enginry. STORM i6i Nothing, no single sight or sound, is here Either subhme or beautiful. But all Has in its dull enormity a drear Power to appal. 13 Such sameness with such terrible unrest, Such vast yet uneventful agitation, For days and nights have heaven and earth possess'd Without cessation ! 14 For days and nights, so far as thought can tell, Had day or night survived ! But time, like space, Grown featureless and undefinable. No periods trace. M i62 MARAH When first I felt the storm's approach, my heart Leapt up and hail'd it, glad of any change From the cruel calm, and eager to take part In something strange. 16 The contemplation of repose and joy In Nature soothes not when the soul is sore ; And to an aching heart a smiling sky Is a pain the more. 17 And so I hail'd a hoped enfranchisement Of grandeur, when this change began. A\ain thought ! Great only in duration and extent, And grand in naught. STORM i6: i8 'Tis but a grisly chaos far and wide Monopolized by powers unbeautiful, Whose dulness, terribly intensified, Makes terror dull. 19 Dull as the incessant multitudinous strife Of the social world, that only magnifies Each meanness of the individual life To a monstrous size ! The python is but an enormous worm : The reptile still a reptile, large or small : The calm was dreary, drearier is the storm : And that is all ! 1 64 MARAH DIMINUENDO Tired of the sun, and all it shines on ; tired Of life's bright baubles toss'd from hand to hand Tired of false joys that are but pains desired ; I seek a land Where sunlight looks like moonlight, and the days Like evenings, and things present like things past, A.nd near things like things distant, thro' the haze Round all things cast. DIMINUENDO 165 3 There, in a life no more than half alive, Let all my waking hours be half asleep, And sleep's self dreamless of whate'er men strive To gain or keep ! i66 MAKAH MOONLAND Dim, lonesome, melancholy Moonland, hail ! My tired heart's home is in thy lap at last, And I have learn'd to love thy features pale As passions past. To me thy colourless cold sea and shore Have grown congenial, and thy sullen air, And ghostly winds that sighingly explore Boughs all but bare. MOON LAND 167 3 Flowers in thy hueless herbage flourish not. But here dwell, hid in hollows of grey sand, Dwarf pansies ; and marsh-mallow blossoms spot The inner land ; 4 Where, at the setting of thine unseen sun. Small fenny pools gleam ©ut of the dark plain, Staring at night, and after day is done Its glare retain. 5 Land of long silences, low whisperings. And sorrowful lights ! Familiar things, that seem Themselves elsewhere, look here like other things, As in a dream. 1 68 MA RAH ^Vhat are they, crouching yonder, crook'd so low ? Mere clumps of rock their misty forms may be, fjut wither'd hags, whose wicked trades I know, They seem to me. 7 That sallow sand- drift, where the shingles halt, A wasted remnant ofemyself appears. This stagnant tarn has in its ooze the salt Of human tears. 8 And all the land is loaded Avith a weight Of resignation to some torpid woe. The heavens are smileless, the fields desolate. The waters slow. MOONLAND 169 9 'rime makes not any effort to divert Aught here from its monotonous attitude Of dull distress. Each feature is inert, Each sound subdued. What now it looks, the landscape seems to say That from the world's beginning it has been, And that its league-long lamentable grey Was never green. Yet this, too, is illusion, like the rest ! The soil's fixt features Nature's fitful will Has changed and changed : and the immutablcst Is changing still. MARAH Thro' transmutations every moment wrought By heat and cold, or damp and drowth ; and those That in commixture with my own sick thought It undergoes. '3 Yox 'tis not only by the tide-wave's toil That yonder coast has been so scoop'd and hack'd, Not only rains and rays that this lean soil Have scarr'd and crack'd. 14 My life's spent passions, sorrows, tears, and sighs In the land's hurt have had their dismal part ; And the chief cause of its dejection lies In my own heart. MO ON LAND 171 IS I know not how it was, nor why it is, But well I know that, whatsoe'er it be. The region round me has become like this Because of me. 16 Thou know'st it, too, sad Moonland ! That is why Thou dost remind me of it everywhere. Thy cold sun has the gaze of a grey eye, Thy sullen air 17 The breath of a lost presence, miss'd how much ! Thy faint winds whisper words I understand Too well ! Thy stillness stirs me with the touch Of a dead hand. 172 MAR AH SELENITES Something sets trembling all the stars. A sigh Stirs the dark land. The moon is rising pale. Slowly a strange procession passes by Along the vale. All women, and all beautiful, all white, All woebegone ! For many a thousand years The day has ne'er beheld them, and the night Their presence fears. SELENITES 173 3 A Seraph leads them. But of fallen state. His wings are clipp'd, yet still their size exceeds The limbs they lift not, and their heavy weight His pace impedes. 4 The moon alone knows what these women are. The sun was never in their secrets. They Know not each other. But one woe they share, One fate obey. 5 \\'hence come they ? Whither are their footsteps bound ? The Past forgets. The Future cannot tell. They have lost their place on earth, and none have found In Heaven or Hell. 174 MARAH For Heaven not good enough, for Hell too good, For life too loving, and for death too dear. Pale ghosts of passion-wasted womanhood, They wander here, 7 Visible only to the tear-wash'd eyes Whose vision mirrors supernatural sights. But I, the initiated, recognize The Selenites ! 175 SOMNIUM BELLUINUM I HAVE dream'd a bad dream, and it harrows me still With a horror of worse impending. I was plodding, persistently plodding up hill, And the hill was a hill never ending : On, I toilfully went in tenacious pursuit Of a something before me going : But if human it was, or divine, or brute, I had never a means of knowing : 176 MAR AH 3 For I neither could touch it, nor hear it, nor see Yet I steadily strove to attain it, Since I knew it was there, by a feeling in me That sufficed, tho' I cannot explain it. 4 There was tree upon tree by the way that I went ; And each tree was a female Briareus, With its feminine arms about me bent In embraces vicious and various. 5 As a path of his own does the pioneer cut. Thro' the prairie his wild way clearing, So did I cut mine thro' those arms, and shut, As I struck at them, both eyes — fearing ! SOMNIUM BELLUINUM 177 6 But a shriek I heard as at each fresh stroke Thro' a shatter'd embrace I hasten'd, And was wet with the drip of the blood that broke From the cLisp that a wound unfasten'd. 7 And before I again look'd up I knew That the thing I pursued had escaped me. It was gone. And a different scene, quite new, The bad dream I was dreaming shaped me. For the hill to a plain had dissolved away. And the plain had no mark, no limit. But as far as my vision could reach it lay (Not a shrub or a shadow to dim it !) N I7S MA RAH 9 In the sultry embrace of a Syrian noon : And, along it confusedly streaming, A profusoin of emigrant prodigies soon Rearranged the bad dream I was dreaming. Twas a monstrous procession. In front of it came The sleek Basilisks, hissing and sighing : In the forehead of each did a diamond flame, And the Wyverns were after them flying. II But below were the Dragons with three-prong'd feet, And each Dragon was forty-footed. And they furrow'd the plain with the flap and beat Of their tails, and its sods uprooted. S OMNIUM BELLUINUM 179 12 In a merrily gambolling company pass'd The lithe Leopards, and Ounces, and Lynxes : Then the Jaguars, Panthers, and Pumas : and last Came the beautiful leonine Sphinxes. 13 In their somnolent motion they seem'd to repose : Was it walking, or flying, or floating ? Not a sound from their paws as they pass'd me arose The approach of their presence denoting ; 14 Not a fold of their filleted tiars was stirr'd ; Not a pulse in their peak'd breasts flutter'd ; But as murmuring seas by a slumberer heard Were the mystic enigmas they muttcr'd. I So MA RAH 15 And their eyes were incessantly changing hue; And each hue of them fitfully thrilFd me With a different pang. When those eyes were blue, 'Twas a passionate longing that fiU'd me ; 16 When they alter'd to violet, from them came Indescribable desolation ; But when red, 'twas a frenzy of burning flame ; And when black, it was life's cessation. 17 -^rhe blithe Centaurs cantering came with a bound. And a rattle of arrowy quivers : Then a troojD of green Gryphons, golden-crown'd. From the Arimaspian rivers. SOMXIUM BELLUINUM iSi i8 There were two-legged Dogs with the airs of gods ; And, escorting Cat- countenanced Creatures, Supernatural Apes with divining rods And fatidical sinister features : 19 And a ponderous phalanx, serried and square, Of the man-faced Bulls of Chaldea, Whose bewildering bulks dread embodiments are Of the strength of a dread Idea. 20 From the back of each Bull rose four vast wings In a feather'd pavilion arching ; And they all had the faces of bearded kings ; And their steps were as mountains marching. 1 82 MAR AH 21 But above the grim multitudes trooping in herds Thro' the Syrian sultriness glitter'd A tumultuous pageant of strange-colour'd birds, And they hooted, and whistled, and twitter'd. Clad in crimson, and orange, and azure, and green, There were Peacocks, and Parrots, and Loories, And Flamingoes, and Hoopoes, and Fowls obscene "\Mth the eyeballs and talons of Furies. 23 And the Hawk and the Ibis were carrying, both, Babylonian rolls of papyrus ; And the scripture thereon was the sentence of Thoth On the souls of Belshazzar and Cyrus. SOiMNIUM BELLUINUM 1S3 24 In the rear of the Birds with a wavering flight Came a flock of Chimjeras meagre, And a squadron of blue-wing'd Serpents bright, With their forkt tongues flickering eager. 25 But the Phoenix it was that commanded the whole, As its high priest, herald, and warder. In his beak he was bearing a fiery coal, And it burn'd with unquenchable ardour : 26 As a fiery coal had he made it to be, But I knew 'twas my own heart burning : For I felt the hot flame of it withering me With the heat of an agonised yearning. i84 MARAH 27 And I cried to them, "What are you going to do With my heart, all you prodigies bestial ; For what sacrifice fierce have you kindled it so With infernal fire ? Or celestial ? " 28 In exorbitant wrath, when I cried to them this, They responded aloud and together, With an uproar as tho' from the riven Abyss 'Twere Leviathan rending his tether. 29 In fuliginous films the disquieted sand Flew about, and above, and beclouded The insatiable sun ; and the shuddering land In a blood-red pall was enshrouded. SGMNIUJM BELLUINJjM 1^5 30 For the Bulls of Chaldea resentfully stamp'd In a bellowing band : and up bounded The roused Panthers and Pumas : the Jaguars ramp'd : And the bows of the Centaurs resounded, 31 As their darts flew about in the blood-colour'd gloom : Into rings where the Dragons contorted : In the eyes of the leonine Sphinxes was doom : The Chimeras all whinnied and snorted ; 32 And the green Gryphons yelp'd : and, like murderous priests, In pursuit of me fast, as I fled them. Came the two-legged Dogs and Cat-countenanced Beasts, AVith the Ape-headed Horrors that led them : 1 86 MAR AH 33 And the Birds and the Basihsks madden'd the air With a horrible screeching and hissing : Till at last I awoke with a clutch of despair At my heart. But too late ! It was missing. EPILOGUE My songs flit away on the wing : They are fledged with a smile or a sigh And away with the songs that I sing Fht my joys, and my sorrows, and I. For time, as it is, cannot stay : Nor again, as it was, can it be : Disappearing and passing away Are the world, and the ages, and we. iS8 MARAH 3 Gone, even before we can go, Is our past, with its passions forgot, The dry tears of its wept-away woe. And its laughters that gladden us not. 4 The builder of heaven and of earth Is our own fickle fugitive breath : As it comes in the moment of birth. So it goes in the moment of death. 5 As the years were before we began. Shall the years be when we are no more : And between them the years of a man Are as waves the wind drives to the shore. EPILOGUE 1S9 6 Back into the Infinite tend Tlie creations that out of it start : Unto every beginning an end, And whatever arrives shall depart. 7 But I and my songs, for awhile, As together away on the wing We are borne with a sigh or a smile. Have been given this message to sing — ■ 8 The Now is an atom of sand, And the Near is a perishing clod : But Afar is as Faery Land, And Beyond is the bosom of God. APPENDIX LORD LYTTON'S LAST POEM^ I HAD not thought that severance from her side Aught but a bitter pang could ever be ; Yet this — the first time flowing seas divide My days from hers, since that great day when we To one another all at once became, The sole man I, and the sole woman she, Of a new world where nothing is the same As in the world that was, — ev'n separation Reveals an unanticipated bliss, And all its pains find more than compensation In our completer intercourse. It is • See Preface, 194 * * * That for the first time also we can write Each to the other now without restraint Or insecurity. 'Twas in the sight Of others only that, while breathing still The same air, and still treading the same soil, We met ; save rarely, when our simple skill Was helped by some strong favouring chance to foil The dragons of my heart's Hesperides. And then the newness of our own desires That would not suffer joy to be at ease, And thoughts that, as along electric wires, Flash'd none but brief and broken messages Because the stint o' the costly time forbade Love's longed-for luxury of full utterance — all These interferences with freedom made Our meetings marred, and mingled drops of gall With the spoilt honey of their sweetest hours. But now such furtive signs and hurried hints. '95 Of feelings prison-bound by hindering powers Find confirmation nothing checks or stints In the full-flowing fearless tenderness Of written words, wherein the loaded heart Loosens the long-pent and importunate stress Of its dear burden. Absence, too,, presents A power (how often wished !) to stand apart A little while from this new past of ours. This past so brief, so recently begun, Scarce older than the rose of August's bowers, And yet so full already of events. So rich in marvels and in memories ! And, thus, released from time's embarrassments, To sort and set in order one by one Its crowded treasures, with undazzled eyes Their wealth explore and reali'^e as true Those bright confused experiences that seemed Whilst still so all-bewilderingly new 196 * ^ * No surer than the sense of sweet things dreamed. Until, mere jumbled heaps of gems no more, But gem by gem in shining sequence spread, Love in lone hours may tell his rosary o'er Nor miss one bead from memory's golden thread. Heart's heart of mine ! Till hfe's last lingering ray Will it not light us, though its sun be set, I'hat day of days, our memorablest day Among the woods and ruins ? Our lips met The first time then. 'Twas you that led the way. Which only you of all our number knew, For strangers to the land both I and they. The others followed us. I walked with you. And as we went you told me legends gay Of the dead rulers of those ruins green, Counts of the Coast who there held royal sway In the land's old time. All breezy bright had been The days till now ; but this was silvery grey 197 And soft and still. The path you led us wound Along low brambled copses glimmering white With giant hemlock. At the last we found A sudden clearing where the hill was quite Unwooded. Ruin'd walls were tumbled round Bare slopes of grass, and naught beyond in sight But woods whose purple belts the prospect bound Beneath us and about us, left and right. Poised on the sky-line of a little mound You looked and listened, and your woodland eyes Deepened, and from your lips came rippling clear A short quick laugh. " Our friends are, I surmise, Still far behind us. Let us wait them here ! " You said, and down you sat upon the ground. And I beside you. From the invisible sea Came to us a long lone melancholy sound. Else, all was still ; the hills the woods and we ; Stiller than sleep. I heard as in a swound 198 * * * My own heart beat while side by side we sat So silent. All your drooping face was drown'd In a rosy glow. You loosed your mouse-grey hat And Avhere you laid it low upon your knee Round it I tried to wreathe — I know not what, Some long * * * weed. You shook your l)rowj curls free, And made an effort vain to smoothe them flat, And laughed again, but would not look at me. Then we began to talk of this and that In lifeless tones. Our thoughts from all we said And all the scene that we were gazing at Were far away. But we had grown afraid Of silence. You were plucking tufts of grass, And strewing them about you blade by blade. I mused — " How oft may it have come to pass That just where we are sitting here, we two. The ruins round us, and the revelling mass 199 Of the proud woods above us and below, And the sea's voice famihar yet forlorn Heard on the stillness, others sat before In the unreckon'd years ere we were born ? How often, too, when we shall be no more, Will others on the wood-girt hillside here Again sit talking, while the day goes by, As we are talking now — as vainly near. As falsely far, with an inaudible sigh Between them ! Others, ignorant of our case. Full of their own, and only moved thereby. Yet haply moved like us by thoughts too dear For utterance ; and like us, — at least like me, Babbling about the features of this place Albeit as heedless of them as can be ; Talking for talk's sake only, who the while Can only think of " There you raised your face, And full on mine you turn'd it suddenly With swimming eyes and half heart-broken smile Low murmuring " Only think of— what?" But I Was silence-struck. Vain verbiage, brought to bay Abruptly by the sharp reality, Grovell'd with inarticulate disgrace Dumfounded : Not a word more could I say. And shudderingly, all resistance vain. Like things caught up, and seized, and swept away By the unconquerable hurricane. We rushed together with a faint wild cry. Closed in a mute embrace that present past And future Love made boundless to engirth. How long did those transcendent moments last ? Enough to metamorphose heaven and earth And both our lives, whose old world vanishing fast Reveal'd a new world dowinc; into birth. When pillow'd on my breast lay, pale, supine, The passion-tranced submissive loveliness Of your surrender'd beautiful soft face Breathing faint bliss, with lips upturn'd to mine Half open, lids half closed ; and I could trace In the deep languors of those longlash'd eyes, Reveal'd at last, the whole pathetic tale Of all the martyrdoms, the agonies, The pangs and rendings such a soul as yours. Before it suffers passion to prevail. In its resistance to the fierce surprise Of love's invasion, silently endures ; Then I remember'd that throughout it all, That time of dread suspicions, and fierce throes, And proud revolts, and warnings augural Of evil, I, your poor friend, who Heaven knows Would, if he thus might spare you love's least ache, Or win you any blessing peace bestows, Have roll'd in Tophet's flame-pits for your sake, Must all that woeful while have been by those Ill-ominous denunciators made To wear the semblance of your worst of foes, The man of whom you should be most afraid. His love, a wrong your pride must needs resent, His presence your young life's most menacing And deadliest danger : and yet none the less, Even when your heart most fear'd that dreaded thing. The shamed acknowledgment of love's success, Even when your brave soul was the most intent To save a noble pride from the distress Of arms surrender'd in a noble strife. That peerless perfect sense of justice blent With all the instincts of a high-born heart. Held fast ; nor ever did you stoop to vent The trouble that was torturing your own life On me, the cause of it. No peevish start Of sudden coldness meant to mystify The man who loved you ; no attempt to gain Respite for doubt by even the smallest lie ; No unjust word ; no cruel feminine art Of self-protection practised in disdain Of love's good faith. * * * ***** PRINTED BV SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STKHET SQUARK LONDON PR H3 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. 50m-l,'63(D4743s8)476 ^/6^ UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A A 001 424 406 5 3 1205 02044 0440