PS 
 
 3531 
 
 O948 
 
 D92 
 
 1906 
 
 MAIN 
 
The Dying Musician 
 
 MARY ELIZABETH POWELL 
 
 Boston: Richard G. Badger 
 or&a 
 
 1906 
 
Copyright 1905 by MARY K. POWELL 
 
 ^4// rights reserved 
 
 n 
 
 PRINTED AT 
 
 THE GORHAM PRESS 
 
 BOSTON, U.S.A. 
 
THE DYING MUSICIAN 
 
The Dying Musician 
 
 i 
 
 EVENING 
 
 Courage, thou soul of mine ! Not long not long 
 
 Will linger time! Life s day is nearly done! 
 A few more hours, and then the angel s song ! 
 
 The victor s palm! The everlasting sun 
 Of righteousness will rise with healing wings! 
 
 In that blest life so soon to be begun 
 Earth s woes will be as ne er remembered things! 
 And thou wilt quaff the sparkling streams that run 
 
 From fountains whence love s pure fulfillment 
 springs ! 
 
 Though darkness falls, the heavens are wondrous 
 
 clear 
 
 And from my window s height I see afar 
 The pale moon rising in the east, while near 
 Her silver horn there sinks one glowing star. 
 Ah! now it sets! It dies with light unfurled 
 To rise in glory on another world ! 
 O star of love ! that in my youth didst rise 
 
 So heavenly bright but to be overcast ! 
 Wilt thou not rise again on fairer skies 
 
 And shine with all the radiance of the past? 
 
 M191861 
 
And Friend, my truest Friend, when it shall be 
 
 That all my feeble strength, and breath are 
 
 spent 
 Should any standing near weep over me 
 
 Say, that though early called, I was content. 
 And though to thee too harsh may seem the fate 
 
 That calls me thus in life s full prime away 
 Shed thou no tears, for from death s opening gate 
 
 I glimpse the radiance of a brighter day. 
 
 4 
 
 Yea! even when I sink in weakness low 
 
 My spirit thrills with mystic power divine, 
 As if from death a healing fount did flow; 
 
 What love, what rapt devotion then is mine! 
 And oft in waking dreams I seem to list 
 
 To low, soft songs, more sweet than earth s may 
 
 be, 
 Then joy flows round me like a golden mist 
 
 Charmed amid waves of heavenly harmony. 
 
 And with those notes, soft as Eolian strains 
 
 Blown by Aurora on the breath of Morn, 
 A perfect peace descends, freed from all pains 
 
 I seem on wings of blissful sound upborne 
 To higher spheres, where palely radiant forms 
 
 Divinely fair float heaven and earth between 
 Love s glow of pure desire my spirit warms 
 
 And then I sink, as now to rest serene. 
 
II 
 
 MORNING 
 
 i 
 
 I thought to pass last night, but with the light 
 
 Nature revives, and as the expiring ray 
 Of the spent taper grows in death more bright 
 
 Thus strength returns as life s flame wastes away. 
 And thou hast watched all night my friend o er me 
 
 God bless thee for a love which never tires! 
 Come near I ve something I would say to thee 
 
 To thee alone, ere life s last gleam expires. 
 
 One day, twas several weeks nay, months 
 
 ago 
 
 Thou didst inquire concerning my past life; 
 Thy love for me being great, thou fain wouldst 
 
 know 
 
 The hist ry of my early toils and strife. 
 Since then I ve traced the record. Duly 
 
 Twas finished. Here s the scroll. Slowly I 
 
 wrought 
 
 In weakness, yet tried, disguising nought 
 To tell of life and of a love that truly 
 
 Was my soul s life, the essence of my thought. 
 
 I could not speak of it I have not breathed 
 
 To living ears the tale I ve traced for thee: 
 Record of months that love with garlands 
 
 wreathed 
 
 Love that to death alone conducted me. 
 What hours were those! Their memory thrills me 
 still 
 
When the whole world seemed only hers and 
 
 mine 
 Such full content, such joy did me then fill 
 
 That peccant earth seemed more than heaven 
 
 divine. 
 
 Open this casket, Friend, it will disclose 
 
 The hoarded treasures of those happy days; 
 They are but few, only a withered rose 
 
 A curl, as golden bright as noon day rays; 
 A little note, discolored by the soil 
 
 Of constant touch and tears from these poor eyes : 
 Mementos dear! from which though faded all 
 
 Sweet odors from a perfumed past arise. 
 
 This rose, tis brittle, dry, and dead dost see? 
 
 And hueless, yet its hist ry will reveal 
 A story of such love and constancy 
 
 As hearts of deepest strength alone may feel. 
 My rose of love ! thou wert a wintry one ! 
 
 Whose bright bloom faded long and long ago 
 And perished when grew pale that summer s sun. 
 
 (Ah me, the thorns remained !) Yet well I know 
 Its roots contained a germ that in some clime 
 
 Some fairer world, will to perfection grow 
 And bud and bloom, a flower of love divine. 
 
 As far surpassing such that earth doth show 
 
 As heaven itself surpasses all below. 
 
 But read the tale. Then should thy judgment move 
 To censure harsh, for having dared to love 
 (E en as great Tasso) one above me far 
 And hopeless of attainment as a star 
 My one defense, even as his must be 
 
 4 
 
" Because I loved, what not to love and see 
 Was more or less than mortal and than me! " 
 
 But all is ended now the grief, the wrong, 
 
 And, as tis said that drowning men recall 
 In one last moment swift their whole life long, 
 
 And live again each scene, so now doth all 
 The past return, a swiftly changing throng, 
 
 Of scenes, and forms I loved . . . around me 
 
 press 
 And pass away soft words of thrilling tone 
 
 Thoughts that the human tongue may not ex 
 press 
 Through strange and subtler senses are made known. 
 
 8 
 
 And ah, again I see her dear eyes shine ! 
 
 That face which ever in my heart I bear 
 Bends smiling tow rds me every thought of mi nc 
 
 Again, as in the past, with her I share. 
 Songs low and sweet seem falling on my ears 
 
 Old summer eves! faint, fleeting, fragments, rise, 
 Out of that vanished time . . . anon appears 
 
 The fountain, terrace, starlit summer skies, 
 
 Till reeling seems the brain ! I ope my eyes 
 
 9 
 Upon the dawn, which brighter grows though 
 
 cold, 
 
 The paling stars die on Aurora s breast 
 And though but half of life alone is told 
 
 I am content to go; God knoweth best. 
 And e en as rosy tints of morning sweet 
 
 Through all the brightening orient spreads and 
 
 flows 
 
 Within my being s inmost depths doth beat 
 A subtle joy that ever grows and grows 
 
 5 
 
IO 
 
 Not the sweet calm of an untroubled hour 
 
 Not the Nirvana s timeless, dreamless, ease 
 But joy prophetic of a greater power, 
 
 A clearer sight, sublimer love and peace. 
 I sink weakness o er my frame is stealing 
 
 My eager spirit bursts its mortal bars 
 And soars where love eternal self-revealing 
 
 Sustains in bliss realms countless as the stars ! - 
 
 ii 
 
 And now ! new life my being penetrates 
 
 My inner sight glimpsing eternity 
 Perceives that Power divine which modulates 
 
 Life s broken song, to perfect harmony 
 With love whose rhythm fills the vast abyss 
 
 With living love, heaven s sovereign symphony 
 That swells and falls in one pure strain of bliss 
 
 Through far celestial regions, ceaselessly. 
 Thou last pale star of night! that linger st yet 
 
 In the dim east, by rosy morn impearled, 
 Enshroud thy waning splendor, fade and set 
 
 And rise, as I, unto a newer world! 
 
 Ill 
 THE STORY OF ONE MAN S LOVE 
 
 In youth, seen through a mist of rosy dreams 
 Life seems a pleasant vale where every bud 
 
 And every green and nascent floweret teems 
 With promises of wondrous coming good 
 
 I saw before me fields of high renown 
 6 
 
" For me," I said, " will bloom the sweets of 
 
 life," 
 
 And doubted not that victory would crown 
 The end of every just and noble strife! 
 
 As freely shrills the bird s songs in spring time 
 
 My spirit too, with youthful ardor glowing 
 Gushed forth in music and unbidden rhyme, 
 
 E en as a fountain filled to overflowing. 
 And tender longings, yearnings uncontrolled 
 
 Surged through my heart in sweet tumultuous 
 
 strife ; 
 Unfolded then my love as flowers unfold 
 
 And flushed to fiery-hearted radiant life. 
 
 3 
 
 Ah me! Between the present and those youthful 
 dreams 
 
 Lies an abyss deep dark in which was 
 
 hurled 
 Love s burning torch, with whose refulgent beams 
 
 Faded the light that glorified my world ! 
 But more of that anon. As in a dream 
 
 My childhood s earliest home I seem to see 
 The trees, the mead, the gently winding stream 
 
 And each loved scene I knew in infancy. 
 
 4 
 
 And mother ! father ! Oh how fondly clings 
 My memory still to each beloved name! 
 
 Dead long ago both dead! Oft slumber brings 
 Their forms before me as in life they came. 
 
 And though no wealthy, titled race was mine 
 How blest beneath their ever tender eye 
 
 7 
 
Were childhood s hours! They in my memory 
 
 shine 
 Like lucent stars against a darkened sky. 
 
 While still a child, death laid these loved ones low: 
 
 In the dear fatherland, beneath the shade 
 Of towering lindens, where the daisies blow 
 
 Together side by side their dust is laid. 
 A little orphan boy! Think what an height 
 
 Steep, arduous, my feet essayed to climb 
 When Music as an angel fair, of light 
 
 Beckoned me upwards to her throne sublime! 
 
 Aye! but think again of all the dear delight 
 
 E en from the first, this angel brought to me 
 For oft, when modulating themes to keys aright 
 My Master cried, his eyes with joy alight 
 
 " E en in his finger s ends, the boy has harmony! " 
 Aye! Even then to me were feelings given, 
 
 Of shivering delight, when some sweet strain 
 Softly arose I felt it was of heaven 
 
 And filled with rapture smote the chords again! 
 
 And music seemed a sweet-voiced bird that sang 
 
 Of some divine, though unknown, mystic land 
 From whose supernal shores there ever rang 
 
 Sweet symphonies, and oratorios grand 
 And as I older grew, clear living airs 
 
 Deep, passion-filled, seemed striving to be heard; 
 Uplifting my rapt spirit unawares 
 
 To where glad strains my inner being stirred. 
 8 
 
8 
 
 I seemed to enter mystic regions where 
 
 Are heard those " primal warblings, etheric fine 
 Where filled with music is the very air,"* 
 
 And filled my soul with harmonies divine. 
 Yet, music doth a charm possess beyond 
 
 Mere melody, and nothing on this earth 
 More strange than this, for only as a sound 
 
 It lives, in silence dies, yet silence gave it 
 birth! 
 
 It seems to come to us from some bright land, 
 
 A land our waking eyes shall never see, 
 And strives to tell us, make us understand 
 
 Some strange sweet secret of eternity. 
 And it is not mere sequences of sound, 
 
 Of chords harmonious, strains of euphony, 
 But breathes all thoughts, all feelings that are found 
 
 In the deep bosom of humanity. 
 
 10 
 
 And all the stars that gem the dome of heaven 
 
 To me were " Quiring spheres " scintillating 
 
 song ; 
 And misty isles of cloudland when wind driven 
 
 Rang with Eolian flutings all day long; 
 Soft winds to flowers breathed in low melodies; 
 
 Bright fountains gushed in music as they fell; 
 While sombre pines whispered sad threnodies 
 
 To my rapture in every shady dell. 
 
 * Emerson. 
 
II 
 
 When mornings brake, grand as the deep abyss 
 
 Of that eternity from whence they came; 
 Would dreamlike, mystic strains of rhythmic bliss 
 
 Steal o er my spirit from those clouds of flame. 
 And when night s gloom stole softly o er the earth 
 
 It seemed a requiem to the dying day 
 And fancy deemed a pensive sigh breathed forth 
 
 When darkness shrouded day s last glimmering 
 ray. 
 
 12 
 
 Even nature s forms to me were harmonies : 
 
 A soft and gentle concord seemed the hills 
 The first low strains of those great symphonies 
 
 The mighty mountains, which rising grandly 
 
 shrills 
 To high-uplifted, wildly-broken song 
 
 Of crag, and peak, and heaven-piercing tower 
 And swells, in rocky battlements along, 
 
 God s symphony indeed of everlasting power. 
 
 IV 
 
 Thus dreaming lyric dreams passed my first youth. 
 
 " With poesy for bread and song for wine " 
 As poets sing, alas, twas oft the literal truth, 
 
 For grinding poverty through years was mine. 
 And back time-vaulting memory takes me to 
 
 The hour auspicious of my first success. 
 I wondered if my noble patron knew 
 
 Of my deep gratitude, and my distress 
 That only stumbling utterances could show 
 The fervent thanks that did my heart o erflow 
 
 Yet which in words could find no clear egress. 
 10 
 
Only in music s language could, I tell 
 
 The struggles of the past ambitions high 
 Desires I scarce had hoped to gratify, 
 
 And now the sweet fulfillment! O full well 
 My ringing notes did stammering words outvie! 
 
 His was a gifted mind that well perceived 
 
 Each thought expressed in tone, and though 
 he spoke 
 
 No uttered word I felt his heart received 
 The grateful thoughts I essayed to evoke. 
 
 He smiled approval, linked his arm in mine 
 
 And passing on and out, we came to where 
 The spacious lawn beneath the bright sunshine 
 
 Lay like a second Eden smiling fair. 
 I gazed around with wondering eyes enchanted 
 
 So rich, so varied was the rare design 
 Where Art o er watching forms by Nature planted 
 
 Had made a scene of loveliness divine. 
 
 "A blending of all beauties." Flower and vine, 
 
 Groves, rocks, and dells where streams did spark 
 ling run 
 Bird song, sweet odors, fountains, soft sunshine 
 
 And azure skies that smiled in benison. 
 On velvet sward, each brightest flower that blows 
 
 Like jewels rare at intervals were set; 
 In shadowy glades the eglantine s pale rose 
 
 Mingled its perfume with the violet. 
 
 1 1 
 
On crystal lakes lolled lilies white as snow ; 
 
 Through stately trees flew birds of brilliant dyes ; 
 On terraced slopes in gay pomp to and fro 
 
 Strutted proud peacocks with their " hundred 
 
 eyes." 
 Dense shadowy groves drew leafy curtains high 
 
 Disclosing vistas of ambrosial gloom 
 Where startled deer glanced up with frighted eye 
 
 And pale cool-rooted flowers essayed to bloom. 
 
 Anon were Naiads, with chaste urns o erflowing 
 
 Spreading a genial coolness all around 
 And with their wavelet s sparkling light bestowing 
 
 The crowning charm to that enchanting ground. 
 Beyond the park lay fields begirt with hedges 
 
 And somewhere near there " roared melodiously " 
 An unseen brook falling o er rocky ledges 
 
 In foaming cataracts to the distant sea. 
 
 We strolled the winding pathway leisurely 
 
 Then paused to view, beside the arching gate 
 The mansion of this man of high degree : 
 
 A grand Baronial Hall of ancient date; 
 Stately and fair the massive structure lay. 
 
 Would I had power, my friend, to paint the sight 
 For in the sunshine of a westering day 
 
 Each tower and roof was bathed in golden light. 
 12 
 
And all the four-score casements were as bright 
 
 As if within raged strange conflagrant fire 
 That through the clear panes rayed prismatic light 
 
 Bright as the dying sun s funereal pyre. 
 And beautiful in wavy curvature 
 
 Arose the circle of low guardian hills 
 Their gray-green sward embossed by rocky spur, 
 
 Dotted with trees, and pearled by flowing rills. 
 
 But as I paused, and looked with thoughtful gaze 
 
 A sudden dread filled my too prescient soul ; 
 Nameless forebodings, like a cloudy haze 
 
 For one swift moment o er me darkly stole. 
 For me unconscious pilgrim on life s way, 
 
 Well might I pause that day and make no haste. 
 
 It was an Ammon s temple on the Lybian waste 
 Wherein for future joy or woe there lay 
 
 Tablets unseen on which my destiny was traced. 
 
 10 
 
 We left the gate, and came unto a bower 
 
 Where sat fair dames, and gallant cavaliers 
 I was presented, bowed (how that first hour 
 
 Comes back to me through all the vanished years!) 
 Then looking up I saw a youthful form, 
 
 Harmonious with that lovely graceful scene 
 Yet so surpassing all in some high charm 
 
 Methought I stood before some gracious queen. 
 
 ii 
 
 A maid it was, but so divinely fair 
 
 She seemed an angel from blest worlds afar; 
 
 And shone amongst the others gathered there 
 
 As shines midst earthly lights some heavenly star. 
 
Yea! as a star! all fire and softness fine: 
 A slight yet stately form ; tresses of gold 
 
 Shaded a face where smiles of bright sunshine 
 Played over earnest depths with charm untold. 
 
 12 
 
 Yea as a star ! as music of the spheres 
 
 Was her sweet voice; her eyes! e en now to me 
 No star in all the heaven so bright appears ! 
 
 And oh, her smile! Twas starlight on the sea! 
 " My daughter." Thus w r ith tender accents spoke 
 
 The noble Lord, I scarcely dared to look 
 Body and soul I bent. Even then awoke 
 
 That love that thence my being s centre shook. 
 
 13 
 
 Yea then! As at a touch of seraph s wand 
 To strange new life all suddenly my soul 
 Was roused. Joy, pain, vague feelings far be 
 yond 
 
 Expression s power through me resistless stole, 
 Fond yearnings, longings dimly understood 
 First strange sweet growth of love s fair flower 
 
 divine 
 
 Passion s delicious quickening of the blood 
 From that bright summer hour henceforth were 
 mine. 
 
 In far less heartfelt scenes, how oft had I 
 
 Sank into an awkward silence almost dumb 
 From diffidence, that seemed, I knew not why 
 
 To paralyze my brightest thoughts, and numb 
 And dull my brain, at all times heretofore, 
 
 How was it on that day, I to a height 
 Of conversational power did rise and soar 
 
 As if on new-found wings of light? 
 
15 
 
 Twas she. And as a wine of vintage rare 
 
 Thrilled to new energy my brain, till thought 
 Sprang swiftly up, and I did dare 
 
 To speak with free, unfettered tongue, and nought 
 Abashed my words in undreamed eloquence 
 
 Fell like a sparkling shower upon them there. 
 How lightly, gayly in that sylvan bower 
 
 The friendly talk around the circle ran! 
 Rank s barriers fled as shadows in that hour 
 
 And each man felt himself brought near to man. 
 
 16 
 
 And when I spoke upon her radiant face 
 
 Sometimes I caught a smile as swift as light; 
 And in her eyes bright meanings I could trace 
 
 When I keen wit with logic did unite. 
 To me the hours seemed moments. Every word 
 
 From her sweet lips came o er me like the dew 
 On thirsty grass. Each soft emotion stirred 
 
 To joyous life. Yet as the daylight grew 
 
 17 
 
 More airy on the mountain top, when fell 
 
 The shadows longer on the vale, a tone 
 Of sadness came, faint as a dying knell 
 
 From some deep recess of my heart unknown 
 And whispered softly, that as this fair day 
 
 Was drawing to a close, so likewise must 
 The day of man s existence fade away 
 
 His hopes, his joys decline into the dust. 
 
 18 
 
 And all I gazed on, shaded woodland bowers 
 The cloud-capped mountains, flowering mead 
 ows gay 
 
The stately mansion s massive granite towers 
 Yea, even the globe, dissolve and pass away. 
 
 But when at twilight hour, with stars above 
 I bade adieu, her hand clasped close in mine 
 
 All gloom had fled, my heart knew only love 
 And its sweet madness made life seem divine! 
 
 I was to teach her music. Thus each day 
 
 Thereafter in the open cheerful room 
 To music set apart, I found alway 
 
 My Lady smiling mid sweet plants abloom. 
 And there at every morn and eve, the while 
 
 She practiced scales and trills, the art of song, 
 What bliss to stand beside her, see her smile, 
 
 And watch her white hands sweep the keys along ! 
 
 Ere long my patron s family left in quest 
 
 Of health (or pleasure) to some famed resort: 
 My pupil stayed behind ( twas her request 
 
 She d fain excel in music s gentle art.) 
 And thus she wandered through the park at will 
 
 And drew me, by the spirit, to her side 
 To feed the swans, to watch the foaming rill 
 
 Leap down the steep to meet the river s tide. 
 
 Searching to find in footsteps of dead spring 
 
 Perchance some violet lingering in the shade ; 
 
 Stopping to hear the tuneful thrushes sing ; 
 Watching the red deer in the hidden glade. 
 16 
 
And all about the old Baronial Court 
 
 We walked at will through one blest summer 
 
 time 
 And sang and talked half earnest half in 
 
 sport 
 Of love and chivalry and deeds sublime. 
 
 Sometimes we glanced on themes whose deep import 
 
 We little kenned, topics of Church and State; 
 Gave judgment on the Field, the Camp, the Court; 
 
 On books most worthy of our love or hate. 
 Not much with Science did we care to climb 
 
 Far dearer to us was the subtle witchery 
 Of poesy, from old and classic rhyme 
 
 To sweet, if lesser songs of our own century. 
 
 We read and loved them all! What strains divine 
 
 Did Tasso trill us from Armida s bowers! 
 And from Dante what draughts of lyric wine 
 
 Sparkling and clear, crowned with immortal 
 
 flowers. 
 What dreams from Coleridge s visionary soul! 
 
 What gems from Shelley s dazzling flow of song! 
 What hymeneal hymns from Keats did roll 
 
 Sweet as the notes his wood nymphs blew along! 
 
 And Tennyson, more loved than all beside 
 We knew each poem well. Enid the bride; 
 
 Maud, Arthur, Guinevere; we knew them all. 
 How Elaine loved, and for her true love died; 
 
 And how false Vivian held the sage in thrall; 
 The woes that Enoch Arden did betide ; 
 
 The noble words of him of Locksley Hall. 
 
And pale proud Byron brought us Harold, Childe 
 
 Of wandering fancy and immortal song; 
 While Scott on bagpipes shrilled his Gatherings 
 wild 
 
 Where warriors brave did to their chieftain 
 
 throng. 
 And from the skies of Swinburne s wondrous soul 
 
 Gleamed starry songs, flame-hearted, scintillant 
 Wherein of heaven, and earth and sea the whole 
 
 Seemed molten in one music jubilant. 
 
 8 
 
 Our young hearts throbbed to every strain they sang 
 
 Whether the thought was one of joy or dole 
 Straight from the poet s heart to ours it sprang 
 
 And found lodgment in each virgin soul. 
 And thus the Land of Song that lies 
 
 Deep in each heart, watered by these springs 
 Budded and bloomed, e en as in Paradise 
 Tis said each bough and shrub that flowerless lies 
 
 Bursts into bloom when swept by angel wings. 
 
 Our souls " caught up " by poesy were whirled 
 
 About impassioned heights of thought, and saw 
 A vision of the glory of the world, 
 
 Duty divine, and Righteousness, and Law. 
 Yet for this galaxy of song, twas love 
 
 That made for all the " sweet particular air 
 To shine in." Anon like that above 
 
 The blessed founts and palms of Eden fair; 
 And then anon like to the Siroc s breath 
 
 That leaves the life a withered wasted plain ; 
 Anon the north wind smiting unto death; 
 
 Anon the gale that brings the fruitful rain. 
 . 18 
 
10 
 
 One day we read the legendary lore 
 
 Of gods and heroes of an age gone by 
 When man with simple faith that is no more 
 
 Invested nature with divinity. 
 And deems as sacred, groves, and forest boughs, 
 
 The fruitful earth, the ocean and the fire. 
 To each the simple shepherds paid their vows 
 
 Sweet offering made and tuned melodious lyre. 
 
 ii 
 
 The earth," I said, " outgrows those old romances 
 
 Which Argive poets once divinely sung: 
 They were but symbols all, those mythic fancies 
 
 A spark, from which a holier light hath sprung. 
 Mere husks which none believe, though even 
 
 They once the kernel of deep truth contained 
 Whose meaning to the priest alone was given, 
 
 Which not to all its holy truth explained." 
 
 12 
 
 " No doubt," she said, " your wisdom reasons well. 
 
 But what delight were mine, if, when we rove 
 As oft we do, through grove and shady dell 
 
 To hear young Colin-Spenser piping of his love! 
 For I too, shepherds was in Arcadia born : 
 
 She gayly quoted, " where the corn is gold ; 
 And watched the lithe-limbed reapers night and 
 morn 
 
 Wrestle and dance about the wattled fold. 
 
 13 
 
 " With young Alcyon did I watch the sheep 
 And tuned my pipe with his in rivalry, 
 
 (This was ere he death s cruel spoil did weep 
 Or sang his Daphne s piteous elegy.) 
 
 19 
 
Oft have I heard him with his honied lute 
 Piping Sweet Eglantine of Meriflure/ 
 
 Even Atlanta, fair and fleet of foot, 
 
 Stood listening neath the vines sweet coverture. 
 
 " And sad CEnone, mourning her false love 
 
 In vales Ionian, have I heard complain; 
 Ah, me, how sad her song! The turtle dove 
 
 Mourns not at eve with such melodious pain. 
 How dull this scene! To what far-distant streams 
 
 Have vanished all the sparkling Naides? 
 Do they enchanted slumber, dreaming dreams 
 
 In some lone isle, beneath strange river trees? 
 
 15 
 
 "Are not these skies as blue, these groves as wild 
 
 As those of Thessaly? Doth not this field 
 (Green as those meadows where queen Juno smiles) 
 
 A honied wealth sweet as Hymettus yield? 
 But from the umbrage of all forest trees 
 
 The laughing Dryads have forever fled. 
 Would that again amid these clustering leaves 
 
 Some ancient god would raise a vine-wreathed 
 head! 
 
 16 
 
 " Would I could glimpse a silver-sandaled foot 
 
 Where midst green water-flags some nymph did 
 
 tread 
 Swift-vanishing or see with reeded flute 
 
 Pressed to his lips, old Pan lift up his head. 
 And Oh! to see the goddess Cythere 
 
 Wandering with fair Adonis on the plain, 
 Amidst the myrtle groves of Arcady! 
 
 But they are dead, never to live again ! " 
 20 
 
17 
 
 She paused, and laughed. The ancient oak be 
 neath 
 
 Which we were sitting, waved its branches fair; 
 Midst shadows swiftly flitting, sunlight wreathed 
 
 Inconstant glory on her golden hair. 
 How beautiful she looked! Her words of haste 
 
 Her cheeks had flushed, her merry lips apart; 
 The silken scarf that bound her lissome waist 
 
 Had burst beneath the heavings of her heart. 
 
 18 
 
 I answered merrily her fancy s mood : 
 
 " They are not dead those gods of Poesy, 
 They do but sleep in some enchantment rude, 
 And could they hear thy sweet voice in the wood 
 
 They would awake and deem it Thessaly. 
 Yon laurel tree again would Daphne wreathe; 
 
 The Dryads in this oak again would dwell ; 
 Along yon shore Ceres her sighs would breathe; 
 
 And in this grove would sing sweet Philomel. 
 
 19 
 
 Amid the sedges by the meadow rill 
 
 Again would pastoral syrinx blow her horn; 
 And for her lost Adonis yonder hill 
 
 Again would hear fair Cytherea mourn. 
 They do but deeply sleep, sometimes one sees 
 
 Them now (I smiled). This yellow daffodil 
 Doth it not waken slumbering memories 
 When you and I did roam at our sweet will 
 In ages past some green Helconian hill? 
 Or on some rocky height did sit at ease 
 Watching the play of blue nymph-haunted seas? 
 21 
 
20 
 
 "And I affirm (when them hast blushed) I ve seen 
 
 Sweet-faced Aurora in her beauteous dawning; 
 And Dew by fairy feet swept from the green 
 
 When thou hast crossed the lawn at early morn 
 ing. 
 And there are Fairies still e en as of old 
 
 Who decked with flowers beneath an oaken tree 
 (She had twined roses in her locks of gold) 
 
 Surpasses even Titania s majesty. 
 
 21 
 
 " Methinks I have a vivid memory 
 
 Of one wood nymph divine, whose hair the sun 
 Did far outshine, when hid, I laughed to see 
 
 How she through meadow paths did swiftly run 
 In gleeful joyousness till all the wold 
 
 Clad in the emerald robes of early spring 
 Seemed with her hair s swift changes flecked with 
 gold, 
 
 E en Jove himself ne er saw a fairer thing! 
 
 22 
 
 "And brighter than Semele s were the eyes that 
 
 met us, 
 
 Swifter than Atlanta s were the flying feet, 
 And her lips! No bees of Hybla or Hymettus 
 
 Ever made a honey half so pure and sweet! 
 At such an hour as this, in such a scene 
 
 The nymphs of wood and rock and stream had 
 
 birth : 
 My eyes beheld them not, but well I ween 
 
 When thou wast born, one nymph came back to 
 earth." 
 
 22 
 
23 
 
 Thus oft we talked, and every various thought 
 
 Love set to music every hour I wis 
 Yet we were only friends, nor ever sought 
 
 That closer touch, which turns content to bliss. 
 And as I lie here fevered all day long 
 
 Weary and weak, my head upon my hand 
 My heart breaks for those hours of talk and song 
 
 That once were mine in that beloved land. 
 
 24 
 
 And sometimes when at eve through ether blue 
 
 I watch fair Hesper s silver taper shine 
 I musing ask, "And does she see it too? 
 
 In some far land, my Lady most divine! " 
 Then my tears fall. "And is she happy?" then 
 
 I ask, " Does she think of those old hours 
 With me in starlight, and in sunlight, when 
 
 We walked and talked and sung among the 
 flowers?" 
 
 25 
 
 How oft in dreams I seem to see her yet! 
 
 Beneath the trees amidst the garden bowers; 
 Beside the fountain where so oft we met 
 
 In dear communion through the twilight hours. 
 Last eve when westering Day grew bright in death 
 
 When pale and paler grew his hectic fire 
 A sweet strong wind blew glad of life and breath 
 
 Straight from the Sun s extinct funereal pyre. 
 
 26 
 
 It brought refreshment. Then I slept and dreamed 
 Of that glad summer in the fatherland 
 
 And of my lady fair who, it meseemed 
 Stood not far off with roses in her hand. 
 
 2 3 
 
I cried in rapture: "Ah, beloved, to me 
 Return, and bring as in the days of yore 
 
 Life s glory and life s gladness, found in thee 
 Alone, and with thee lost f orevermore ! " 
 
 27 
 
 She stood before me, looked into my face 
 
 With unutterably bright and shining eyes; 
 No word she spake, but with angelic grace 
 
 Lifted her hand and pointed to the skies. 
 Twas but a dream, but oh, the wild delight 
 
 That thrilled my soul, to see what once to me 
 Was of my lonely life the one thing bright. 
 
 Though but a dream it seemed sweet prophecy 
 Of another meeting in a land of light. 
 
 VI 
 
 Words fail to fully tell, friend of my heart, 
 
 Her graciousness of mien, her courtesy 
 Through all the time we studied that great art 
 
 That doth subdue mere sound to harmony. 
 How bright she was in all its subtleties! 
 
 And e en in chords entangled could discern 
 Some thought of nature s wreathing melodies 
 
 That Masters in the art but seldom learn. 
 
 Of thought expressed in tone, how great 
 
 Was her delight ! Oft would she question me 
 
 In words, and I my heart with pride elate 
 Answered in tones which did consonantly 
 
 The varied feelings of the mind express. 
 
 While she near by, noting with earnest heed 
 24 
 
My every tone with gleeful readiness 
 
 Each thought my music woke to life would read. 
 
 3 
 
 And thus with free speech, earnest, gay or sad, 
 
 With fervent looks to which the stars are pale, 
 Laughter tears and always with the glad 
 
 Sad voice of Music life in that sweet vale 
 Was as a fair bright dawn impearled with dew 
 
 Whose Morning Star with radiance all untold 
 Had ushered in a day wherein a new 
 
 "Apocalypse of nature " was unrolled. 
 
 Ah, was she not in truth a morning star! 
 
 Did not her presence bring sweet airs from 
 
 heaven ? 
 Soft as Eolian harpings heard afar 
 
 As clear as strains by sun-kissed Memnon given! 
 The earth seemed by a radiant difference born anew 
 
 Ask me not how I can no reason render: 
 
 The stars shot brighter beams ; a deeper 
 
 splendor 
 
 Shone through the heaven s etheric, effluent blue 
 As if to it the sun his being drew 
 
 More lustrous seemed the deeply shining sea; 
 Blooms fairer were and with a far more tender 
 
 Cadence trilled the wild-wood minstrelsy. 
 
 Days, weeks, and months passed thus I have been 
 
 told, 
 
 I did not know I only counted time 
 By hours with her. (How short they were to hold 
 The whole of life!) Alas, that love life s 
 Prime 
 
 25 
 
In all the luxury of verdure given 
 To the full flush of ardent summer-time 
 Should be for one above me as the heaven! 
 
 I took no heed of earth nor the profound 
 
 Of ocean s depths beneath, nor heaven s above, 
 Nor human fears and hopes, in her I found 
 
 Earth, heaven, and sea my universe of love. 
 My mind a realm of fantasy became 
 
 Where only passion dwelt: by day and night 
 Love s torch burned in my heart reflected flame 
 
 From her my sun, my day-of-life s blest light. 
 
 The children of this faithless, selfish world 
 
 What know they of such deep unchanging love! 
 Tis far above them, as the stars impearled 
 
 In yonder heaven are this dark world above. 
 They know no more than some blind worm that 
 creeps 
 
 Beneath the earth towards his fellow knows 
 How gloriously the light through heaven sweeps 
 
 When first the sun at morn his beams disclose. 
 
 8 
 
 Such love s an isolation of the soul 
 
 Absorbing, absolute nothing doth live 
 Save one. The Pleiades unceasing roll 
 
 For one, and their " sweet influences " give. 
 For one the seasons through the years revolve; 
 
 The star beams shine; the moon sheds radiance 
 bright ; 
 
 For one alone the clouds in rain dissolve ; 
 Rises the sun at morn and sets at night: 
 Past ages all the herald of its might; 
 Its heritage eternal life and light ! 
 26 
 
Love to the common herd is but a toy, 
 
 To be played with then cast aside at will. 
 No likeness bearing to that highest joy 
 
 Than bears to ocean s depths the shallow rill. 
 O flame ineffable of radiance bright! 
 
 Unutterable, and never-dying One! 
 Their love to mine is as the fire-fly s light 
 
 Is to the scorching blaze of noonday sun. 
 
 10 
 
 O sweet bewildering charm that every hour 
 
 Two hearts as one in sympathy doth blend! 
 What force of reason can withstand its power? 
 
 Though leading only to a bitter end ? 
 Aye! E en unto death! such love was mine, and 
 nought 
 
 On earth beneath, has e er had power again 
 To move my bosom s fondest, deepest thought 
 
 To heights or depths supreme of joy or pain. 
 
 II 
 
 And deem not true the maxim old that time 
 
 Changes all things true love doth never 
 
 change : 
 " Nor alters when it alteration finds "* 
 
 Through life, in death, nought can such souls 
 
 estrange. 
 And now I die, because my longing heart 
 
 Breaks for the one I may not, must not, see. 
 O pride accursed! That our two lives did part 
 
 Lives linked by love s divine affinity. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 27 
 
12 
 
 And she? Yes she had also felt that fine 
 
 Sweet, dominating force so dear to woman ; 
 That power which by an alchemy divine 
 
 Transmutes into a god the weakly human. 
 No word we spake but there are tones and signs 
 
 Unuttered that we understand and see. 
 I knew her heart answered each hour to mine; 
 
 And oft her pensive eyes did question me. 
 
 13 
 
 My love! My life! Could she have read aright 
 
 My inmost soul she must have seen and known 
 Since first we met, with what great power and 
 might 
 
 My love for her had all resistless grown. 
 Could she have guessed how hard it was for me 
 
 To see to know, yet never dare to speak 
 And tell my love, presumptuous though it be, 
 
 And from her willing lips love s guerdon take! 
 
 H 
 
 Honor forbade. I forced the impulse down 
 
 And tried by reason s power to still the heart 
 In strains of thrilling music tried to drown 
 
 Passion s wild fires, and ease the burning smart. 
 Ah, duty harsh and hard that thus gainsays 
 
 The heart s sweet impulse! Bitter the decree 
 To banish love and see the hastening days 
 
 Of life s one springtime wasted as they flee! 
 
 15 
 
 Oft would we meet at morn, or vesper chime, 
 
 Beneath the trees, by fount, or winding stream 
 Of those sw r eet hours I wrote full many a rhyme 
 28 
 
As lovers will when tranced by love s strange 
 
 dream. 
 Did not Dante of his immortal love 
 
 Sing ever fondly in the olden time? 
 And Tasso with laments sweet thoughts in-wove. 
 
 Read and forgive my friend, this lesser rhyme. 
 
 EVENING AND MEETING 
 
 These verses breathed themselves to life one eve 
 After a day in which looks most divine 
 
 And languorous sighs had made me well believe 
 Her true heart beat responsively to mine. 
 
 O Lady leave thy stately halls 
 
 And sit alone this eve with me 
 Where the fading light of the sunset falls 
 
 On the fountain flowing free 
 The murmuring fountain that forever calls 
 
 As my heart, for thee ! for thee ! 
 
 The nenuphars loll on the lake 
 And open pure, gold-hearted stars, 
 
 While lucent waves to their soft bosom take 
 The planets and fiery Mars 
 
 Burns them with kisses till blushing they break 
 In rose-tinted bright-sparkling bars. 
 
 3 
 
 The bright crimson rose on the wall 
 Grows wan in the fast-fading light 
 And soon o er the meadows, and fields like a pall 
 Will descend the shadows of night. 
 29 
 
But ah, not a shadow on my glad heart shall fall 
 For my Lady will meet me tonight! 
 
 4 
 
 What a glad sweet west Wind blows 
 
 O er the slowly purpling lea! 
 It bringeth the odor of jasmine and rose 
 
 And the song of the sounding sea: 
 O happy west Wind ! Well he knows ! well he 
 knows ! 
 
 My Lady is coming to me! 
 
 5 
 
 Haste moments! For my heart s full flood 
 
 Flows surging to her evermore, 
 And a tumult, and longing are thrilling my blood 
 
 As the passionate sea seeks its shore 
 And my heart beats with rapture, as it throbbed 
 when she stood 
 
 By my side in the music-room door 
 When her sighs spoke " love " plainly as language 
 could 
 
 And her eyes mutely questioned " No more? " 
 
 All day have those languorous sighs 
 
 Through my heart s glad garden blown 
 
 (As a breeze of the evening slow-lingering flies 
 Through passion flowers loves very own) 
 
 And those glances more lambent than stars in 
 
 the skies 
 Through the hours in my heart have shone ! 
 
 7 
 
 And the dread of parting shall not lit 
 Tonight on my heart like a stone 
 3 
 
And thoughts of the future like phantoms shall fly 
 
 And Joy shall himself enthrone, 
 For this eve where flowers to the soft winds sigh 
 
 We two will wander alone! 
 
 8 
 
 Though the future will bring I know 
 
 Great ills in its sorrowful train : 
 A woe that will blanch my lips and my brow 
 
 Heart-hunger, and longing pain 
 Lone mornings, and evenings that will bring I trow 
 
 Yearnings to see her again 
 Wishings, and thirstings, to see her as now 
 
 But then Oh, God, all in vain ! 
 
 But I will be happy tonight 
 
 Till all the sweet hours be over; 
 
 I will list to her songs and words with delight 
 As if I were happiest lover, 
 
 And if I should weep the shadows of night 
 The dolorous brine will cover. 
 
 10 
 
 O Supreme Love! Thou art something higher 
 Than youthful visions, rose-hued, and bright, 
 
 Stronger art thou than all desire 
 And fairer than all delight 
 
 More deep than thought ! spark of living fire 
 From the Eternal Fount of Light ! 
 
 ii 
 
 Through the everlasting years 
 
 Beyond the shores of time 
 Far, far above the starry spheres 
 
 Higher than thought may climb 
 
Or vision pierce of hoar and holy seers 
 Reigns Love the lord sublime. 
 
 12 
 
 But my Lady, she cometh soon! 
 
 nightingales sing on for love! 
 To lighten her pathway arise O moon! 
 
 Her pathway to me through the grove! 
 Sing, O nightingales! Sing! Your most jubilant 
 
 tune 
 Shine your brightest! O stars above! 
 
 13 
 
 And tonight tonight, at her feet 
 
 Will I lay the glad gift of song! 
 Strains sweet as the notes the bulbuls repeat 
 
 To their loves the summer night long 
 Would that with my Lady s perfections replete 
 
 1 could make immortal the song! 
 
 Would I could tell her how dark and strong 
 
 Is the night she drives away! 
 And with love s most thrilling, and eloquent tongue 
 
 Tell her how dark is the day 
 When I see her not, how I sigh and long 
 
 As the chill months long for May! 
 
 15 
 
 What gleamed where the breezes blew 
 Through the boughs the balsamic air? 
 
 Was it the moonlight clear reflected in dew? 
 Or the sheen of her golden hair? 
 
 And was that her hand down the dark avenue 
 That flashed so white and fair? 
 
 3 2 
 
i6 
 
 She cometh ! O grace unknown ! 
 
 O sun s compeer in thy dear light 
 Dread of the future of parting, has flown, 
 
 Darkness has vanished, and there is no night 
 Never a shadow, where thy clear eyes have thrown 
 
 Sweet glances of love shining bright! 
 
 VII 
 
 And many times, ere to his daily task 
 
 The sun in splendor joyously sprang forth; 
 Or ere the dark, unfathomed, star-gemmed mask 
 
 Of darkness fell from the reposing earth, 
 Would I arise and hasten where pale flowers 
 
 Edging a shaded stream, perfumed the air 
 Here would I sit and write through early hours: 
 
 And sometime would my Lady meet me there, 
 And wander with me through green wildwood 
 bowers 
 
 Odorous with tender smells from budding vines 
 Till lessons called us hence. Of these bright hours 
 
 I wrote (forgive their weakness friend) these 
 lines : 
 
 MORNING AND MEETING 
 
 O morn, lift high thy gates! The glorious sun- 
 god waits: 
 Fling wide your flashing, flaming doors, ye 
 
 golden towers of Light! 
 
 To let the lord of Day in dazzling bright array 
 Come in, dispersing by his power the gloomy 
 hosts of Night. 
 
 33 
 
2 
 
 Mountains bedewed with rills, and heaven-kissing 
 
 hills 
 
 Beheld, far off, through vaporous shades, his radi 
 ant banners thrown 
 And donned their crowns of light, their jeweled 
 
 vestments bright 
 
 And amethystine veils of mist, by Auroral breezes 
 blown. 
 
 3 
 
 In valleys low and green, gray ghostlike rock be 
 tween 
 Violets of royal sheen lift up, dark, dew-wet faces 
 
 sweet, 
 And through the lightening gloom breathe forth 
 
 divine perfume 
 
 An offering of incense rare for his approaching 
 feet. 
 
 4 
 
 Adown the rocky height the fountain flashing bright 
 To meet and greet the glorious one, sparkles with . 
 
 joy and springs 
 While on the resonant air in cadence sweet and 
 
 clear 
 
 Is heard the lark s exultant song as at heaven s 
 gate she sings. 
 
 5 
 From groves and woodlands lone, as cheer of sweet 
 
 flutes blown 
 Now ring the birds first mating songs to greet 
 
 his presence bright 
 
 While trees their branches fair lift in the dewy air 
 And wave glad salutation to the lord of life and 
 light. 
 
 34 
 
6 
 
 But where is my heart s sun? my life s light 
 
 peerless one? 
 In her chamber is she slumbering soft and pure 
 
 and warm? 
 Oh, would that dreams might stir, love deep as mine 
 
 in her 
 
 And weave by mystic spirit power a never ending 
 charm. 
 
 7 
 
 And as the sun-god bright disperses shades of night 
 All my dark despairing thoughts her presence 
 
 drives away 
 Then rise thou Sun most fair haste through the dewy 
 
 air 
 
 Tis at morn s early hours that earth her fairest 
 charms display. 
 
 8 
 
 Through deepest woodland shades, through flower- 
 scented glades; 
 
 And neath the lighter umbrage of the open, sun 
 lit grove, 
 We ll wander while the sun doth his first measures 
 
 run 
 
 And softly as on angel wings will glide the hours 
 of love. 
 
 9 
 
 Come ! for the emerald leaves are whispering in the 
 
 breeze 
 And rustling softly as if kissed by sunbeams from 
 
 above ; 
 While a tumult, joyous, light in earth and water 
 
 bright 
 
 Proclaim that spring is holding her festival of 
 love! 
 
 35 
 
1O 
 
 Oh, all day long my soul trembles in love s control 
 And all night long with thoughts of thee my 
 
 fevered dreams are sweet 
 Dreams in which I see thy tender eyes thy hair s 
 
 gold splendor 
 
 And offer thee my heart s devotion, kneeling at 
 thy feet. 
 
 II 
 
 Oh haste my Lady sweet ! For thy delaying feet 
 I listen, listen, near the stream beneath the spread 
 ing trees 
 Here sadly, faintly sighing, my hopes despairing, 
 
 dying 
 
 I send my burning thoughts to thee on morning s 
 swiftest breeze : 
 
 12 
 
 " Oh, tell her, Wind, I dream by the low murmur 
 ing stream 
 And to all pleasant sights and sounds I close my 
 
 weary ears 
 In my sad mind there lives no thought that pleasure 
 
 gives 
 
 For every sweet and precious hope is shadowed 
 by dark fears. 
 
 13 
 Tell her where sunlight plays, on spicy woodbine 
 
 sprays 
 And every bough and branch upon the wild-wood 
 
 almond trees 
 Droops, heavy with pink blooms, each filled with 
 
 rich perfumes 
 
 And nectarous honey, golden-hued, to tempt the 
 drowsy bees, 
 
 36 
 
Tis there alone, alone her other self, her own 
 Languishes with longings deep till his love doth 
 
 come 
 
 And with her presence bring bird s songs and flow 
 ers, and spring! 
 
 Absent from her the vernal earth is cold and 
 dark and dumb. 
 
 15 
 
 Tell her what grief is mine! she leaves me here to 
 pine 
 
 Time passes yet she comes not Will she come ? 
 Despairing let me die forgetting agony! 
 
 Alas ! I see her not though far my sad eyes roam. 
 
 16 
 
 O thou snow-white blossom ! white as her pure 
 
 bosom ! 
 By the rude storm tossed, and bruised, and wildly 
 
 heaved ! 
 Wind torn as I with fears, rain-wet as I with 
 
 tears, 
 
 Emblem art thou of my heart, O my hopes de 
 ceived ! 
 
 17 
 
 But soft! What image bright breaks on my rap 
 tured sight? 
 My Lady comes she comes ! and with her all 
 
 things fair; 
 Yet fairer she than flowers, that deck the rarest 
 
 bowers 
 
 And sweeter than all odors fine distilled in dewy 
 air! 
 
 37 
 
i8 
 
 Oh brighter are her eyes, than stars in midnight 
 
 skies! 
 
 And never white blooms dew-impearled, the fair 
 est of all lands 
 Can rival the pure whiteness the airy graceful 
 
 lightness 
 
 Nor equal in their fragrance the sweetness of her 
 hands. 
 
 19 
 
 Afar seen faintly then plainly, by glade and glen 
 She comes, my life, my soul, true to my heart, 
 
 her home! 
 Hasten! Oh, pause not now! parched are my 
 
 lips and brow. 
 
 (Oh would that she could come to never, never 
 roam!) 
 
 20 
 
 The softly waving grass bends low to see her pass 
 O er hills of emerald verdure, where soft winds 
 
 whisper " Stay 
 
 With us and we will sing strains soft, enrapturing 
 Blown sweetly on Eolian harps, O thou fairer 
 than the day! " 
 
 21 
 
 And birds a joyous choir, lift their glad voices 
 
 higher 
 And chirp " O hear us! hear us! our songs are all 
 
 of love," 
 While streams and fountains sigh " haste not so 
 
 quickly by 
 
 We would thy image mirror, thou dearest earth 
 above." 
 
 38 
 
22 
 
 And all the pale, pure flowers, that bud in wood 
 land bowers 
 
 Have waited through the dawning hours, open 
 ing each silk-soft bloom 
 Exhaling odors sweet, for her approaching feet 
 Til birds and happy insects dance in waves of 
 rich perfume. 
 
 23 
 
 Cease! birds, and streams, and breeze, and thy 
 
 whispering O leaves! 
 And listen in waiting silence as her lingering 
 
 steps draw near 
 To where I sit alone, on a rock with moss o er- 
 
 grown 
 
 (All swiftly as the mists have flown each gloomy 
 doubt and fear.) 
 
 24 
 
 But hasten ! hasten near ! my ears are sick to hear 
 
 The music of that softest, gentlest, voice of thine 
 O heart, O throbbing bosom ! My love is com 
 ing coming! 
 
 Mine! Mine! (Would God she were!) For 
 ever, ever mine! 
 
 25 
 
 Mine! but hark! she s near almost enough to 
 
 hear 
 
 Her voice, to see her smile to hear her say 
 Something to me most dear (all her words are 
 
 cheer!) 
 
 Run! O my soul to meet her! my lady is on her 
 way! 
 
 39 
 
26 
 
 O er green, lush meadow lands, with roses in her 
 
 hands 
 She cometh to the morning tryst treading with 
 
 nameless grace 
 With tremulous eye and heaving breast, tokens 
 
 of love s divine unrest 
 
 She comes! She s here! All heaven is in the 
 place ! 
 
 27 
 
 Hours of weary waiting over, with happy heart, thy 
 
 happy lover! 
 
 By thy divinest side feels supremest bliss: 
 Feels the utter gladness, born of former sadness: 
 All music s subtlest charms, were they not pre 
 sages of this? 
 
 28 
 
 Where shall we wander, sweet? On shores where 
 
 wild waves greet 
 
 The bald, bare rocks and break in angry foam? 
 Or where the spreading plain waves all with yellow- 
 grain ? 
 
 Or shall we through dark shadowy woodlands 
 roam? 
 
 29 
 
 Or shall we slowly stray where silver streamlets 
 
 play? 
 Reflecting heaven s own lustre in their waters 
 
 clear ? 
 Whither? No matter whither! Are we not love 
 
 together? 
 
 All places are as Paradise if thou be with me 
 there ! 
 
 40 
 
30 
 
 Aye! ever when thou re near, I rise to heaven s 
 
 sphere 
 For in thy eyes reflected shine back the starry 
 
 skies ; 
 
 And gazing in those true pure orbs of heavenly hue 
 I see the shining portals of my heart s Paradise. 
 
 Ah, sweet is music s power, when thou at such an 
 
 hour 
 Doth gayly, gladly sing clear strains that har 
 
 monize 
 With the skylark s song of love, falling from skies 
 
 above 
 I dream I hear an angel blest, singing in Paradise. 
 
 32 
 
 And in the peerless power, of beauty s magic dower 
 
 I see at morn beneath clear cloudless skies 
 She whom, my love s emotion transformed to 
 
 saint s devotion 
 
 I worship as Love whose power alone makes earth 
 a Paradise. 
 
 TO ONE WHO WILL NEVER SEE IT 
 MY LADY CAROLINE 
 
 This morn I watched the golden orb of day 
 Rise from the bosom of a rippling bay, 
 Whose waves blushed rosy red to greet the sight 
 Of him for whom they d waited all the night. 
 His burning face behind a purple cloud 
 Shone like a blood-red disc in misty shroud. 
 But as the mists, wind blown, far seaward rolled 
 
 4 1 
 
Oh then how grandly did his powers unfold 
 Till all the ocean danced in living gold. 
 
 Soon did his shining beams the heavens fill 
 
 O er all the earth with power they did prevail 
 
 As lightning swift, they leaped from hill to hill 
 A golden flood, they spread from vale to vale. 
 
 Sadly I walked, neither the dancing sea 
 Bedecked with sun-bright, glimmering jewelry, 
 Earth dew-impearled, nor opal broidered sky 
 Could make the shadows from my sad soul fly. 
 Yet had I walked on desert sands all bare 
 Of waving trees and nature s beauteous bloom; 
 
 Or on a rocky, sea-girt, island where, 
 Was only heard the breakers sullen boom; 
 Or on an arctic snow-plain cold and bleak, 
 Where winter reigned, as far as eye could seek 
 Yet if with me, my heart s heart, thou wert there 
 The rocky island snow-plain, all were fair ! 
 The desert sands would blossom as the rose; 
 The breakers boom as murmuring stream that 
 
 flows ; 
 
 All scenes, all sounds, would fair and pleasant be, 
 For thou my love art all the world, and all humanity 
 
 to me. 
 
 For were I wandering in bare desert lands 
 Thy presence were as springs in burning sands 
 And were I on an icy plain thy mouth 
 Would with thy kisses bring the balmy south; 
 No rocks were rough if I my head could rest 
 On the dear comfort of thy fragrant breast; 
 No sounds were harsh, could I that hour hear 
 The music of thy voice so sweet and clear. 
 With thee, all sounds and sight would pleasant be 
 For thou my love art all the world and all humanity 
 to me. 
 
 42 
 
VIII 
 
 And oft at midnight hour a restless feeling 
 
 Drove me to wander through wild ways forlorn: 
 
 Or, pen in hand my inmost thoughts reveal 
 ing 
 Would write until the dawning of the morn. 
 
 AT MIDNIGHT 
 
 What stirs me so? What means this restless feel* 
 ing? 
 
 This wish to roam? 
 
 Why am I thus at midnight softly stealing 
 Towards her darkened home? 
 
 Through me all thrilling how I cannot say 
 
 Yearnings are flowing 
 That urges presses me both night and day 
 
 Ever to be going, 
 
 To the palace, where all sweetly sleeping 
 She lies tonight, I know. 
 
 My veins! What burning fire is keeping! 
 My heart, what quenchless glow! 
 
 At my feet dew-laden, fair flowers cluster. 
 
 Would that I were there! 
 The moon and stars then would lose their lustre 
 
 For she is more fair. 
 
 43 
 
Though the earth is bathed in floods of moonlight; 
 
 And stars as diamonds sparkling; 
 Though open fields and plains are, as the noon, 
 bright 
 
 And groves with shadows darkling, 
 
 Though through hours, sweet flowers are incense 
 breathing 
 
 On the balmy air 
 And leaves and vines are magic garlands wreathing 
 
 Around me everywhere, 
 
 Yet vain are all the charms that nature s wearing 
 
 Summer s bright gladness 
 Amid each fairest scene, my heart is wearing 
 
 A weight of sadness. 
 
 8 
 
 To still my heart s unrest, ever essaying 
 
 Hopeless griefs to fly 
 I thus through midnight groves am sadly straying 
 
 Through lonely woodlands hie. 
 
 At midnight! Is my love in beauty sleeping 
 Through these hours so bright? 
 
 Or is she as her lover, lonely keeping 
 
 Watch through the hours of night? 
 44 
 
10 
 
 If she sleeps, with joy s fullest measure 
 May her dreams be blest! 
 
 Whilst my bliss her image pure to treasure 
 Deep within my breast. 
 
 II 
 
 Is she kneeling, praying for her lover 
 Whilst her heart o erflows? 
 
 Oh, beloved ! May angels round thee hover 
 And all of heaven disclose! 
 
 12 
 
 And oh, may all the prayers that melt or move thee 
 
 Full fruition crown! 
 Ascending to the heaven of bliss above thee 
 
 Fall in blessing down! 
 
 Dost thou dream ? O dream of me sweet angel ! 
 
 My heart s blest star! 
 Light of my lonely life ! love s fair evangel ! 
 
 So near and yet so far! 
 
 All weary am I with my soul contending - 
 
 O tyrannous desires! 
 Come holy Peace from heaven descending 
 
 Assuage my heart s fierce fires! 
 
 45 
 
You understand but feebly, friend, from these weak 
 
 rhymes 
 How love s sweet music filled and thrilled my 
 
 heart 
 Through balmy days of which some lingering 
 
 chimes 
 
 Since then have been of all my dreams a part. 
 I know at best I have but ill-defined 
 
 The sweet and bitter tumults of my soul 
 Where love s delight to sorrow still inclined 
 As, changing ever, waves of ocean roll. 
 
 But still what joy was ours what sweet content ! 
 
 We were as notes in perfect unison 
 Where heart with heart in sympathy was blent 
 
 E en as two chords harmonious, blend in one; 
 Enwrapped as in a veil of rhythmic dreams 
 
 Woven by song entrancing hours were given 
 Wafted on music s bright rejoicing streams 
 
 We breathed the air and touched the shore of 
 heaven. 
 
 And as I lie here all day long, and dream 
 
 Musing upon those hours forever past 
 I scarcely know what one my heart would deem 
 
 In happiness all others had surpassed, 
 Yet there is one, transfixed indelibly 
 
 Upon my mind, because in after years 
 There was a sequel, dear that curl to me 
 Was given and that note which thou didst see 
 
 With usage soiled, and stained with sorrow s 
 tears. 
 
 46 
 
4 
 
 That summer morn! O ne er shall I forget! 
 
 Entwined with jasmine was the ancient tower, 
 And when I catch its sweet scent, even yet 
 
 I seem to live again that happy hour. 
 It was a perfumed, sunlit, perfect day, 
 
 When all the verdant hills and vales did vie 
 In loveliness that faded, faint away 
 
 Into the arms of the all-embracing sky. 
 
 5 
 
 I stood beside her, while her fingers ran 
 
 Lightly across the ivory keys they seemed 
 Like rose-leaves blown by wind then she began 
 
 A simple song a gentle strain, love-dreamed. 
 What moved her then? She paused. Her eyes 
 divine 
 
 Filled with bright tears, as with a tremulous sigh 
 She lifted them beseechingly to mine 
 
 And murmured softly " Tell me, Master, why 
 
 My music all so cold and frigid seems ? 
 
 So lifeless so unlike the thrilling notes 
 Thy touch evokes, so sweet at time one deems 
 
 An angel s voice around then softly floats. 
 Though mine may perfect be technically 
 
 It something lacks that baffles all my skill, 
 Some subtle power, passion intensity 
 
 All tones I try yet it eludes me still. 
 
 7 
 
 If thou but press the keys thy hands beneath 
 With noonday fervor doth the music glow 
 
 The fragrance of fresh flowers around then breathe 
 And strains from harps Eolian seem to blow, 
 
 47 
 
And every changing cadence thrills my heart 
 Expression giving to some mood of mine, 
 
 Moods of which joy and sadness are a part 
 And each with power that seems almost divine. 
 
 8 
 
 Earth seems to fade away, and as the beams 
 
 Of dawn tints all with its own beauteous sheen 
 Life s stream, from music s charms, more brightly 
 gleams, 
 
 Each day is fairer, each hour more serene. 
 Oh much I fear that I may never gain 
 
 Such power as thine, it dwells from me as far 
 And seems and high and hopeless to attain 
 
 As if it were some distant shining star. 
 
 How blest that hour! of all my life most fair 
 
 When thy sweet music first entranced my soul 
 As some seraphic being of the air 
 
 With tuneful voice it round me softly stole, 
 Uplifting fancy till it soared to spheres 
 
 Quivering with strange new life, a life of joy 
 Where brighter, fairer, lovelier, all appears 
 
 Yielding a pleasure keen, without alloy. 
 
 10 
 
 If but a simple air is by thee played 
 
 The music flows a gushing, living stream. 
 When I to play the same notes have essayed 
 
 How cold and lifeless did the numbers seem. 
 Tis ever thus and vainly do I try 
 
 To give the life thy sweet impassioned strain 
 So purely breathes. Thy secret tell, that I 
 
 Unto such marvelous power as thine attain. 
 48 
 
II 
 
 What answer could I make? All the drear past 
 
 Came back to me A childhood of dark gloom. 
 I shivered then, for as I backward cast 
 
 My mind, I seemed to see again the room 
 Cheerless and cold to which an ill-clad boy 
 
 Came in the early dawn of wintry day 
 To practice music. So pinched was he the joy 
 
 His love of music brought could not allay 
 
 12 
 
 The pangs of hunger, nor the sting of cold, 
 
 And so forlorn, my heart thrilled pityingly 
 Even then for this poor child, so young, yet old 
 
 In all the woes of orphaned penury. 
 And once again my memory brought to me 
 
 The after years when I had older grown 
 Still followed by relentless poverty, 
 
 Oft stung by cruelties the world had shown. 
 
 13 
 
 Now looking down upon this dainty child 
 
 Favored alike by fortune and by birth 
 Who questioned me with eyes so sweet and mild 
 
 I wildly stammered " Never on this earth 
 Comes power until our hearts feel and know 
 
 Dark hour of grief in which our hopes expire. 
 From the full heart the fervent strains must flow 
 
 If they to touch another s would aspire. 
 
 When feeling prompt thy strains and passion fired 
 They from thy own heart s deepest fountains 
 
 flow 
 All breathless to these sounds, deep, soul-inspired 
 
 49 
 
Their hearts will catch the flame and kindling, 
 
 glow, 
 Experience! Never since life began 
 
 Had music-moving power untaught of thee! 
 But this thou understandest not, nor can 
 
 Till Life shall teach thee. Hear thou me: 
 
 15 
 
 Would thou my secret know? The bitter school 
 
 Of poverty was mine, exacting, stern. 
 Beneath whose harsh and soul-embittering rule 
 
 I pray my Lady, you may never learn! 
 This school so hard was yet a faithful friend 
 
 That ever urged me on to new endeavor : 
 The coming years to you may sorrows send, 
 
 But what I ve borne, may you be spared for 
 ever!" 
 
 16 
 
 I ended in such passion, that her tears 
 
 Brimmed over. Then I told her all my life 
 Commencing with my first remembered years 
 
 And all the after time of hope and strife. 
 Ah, then upon her face what grief divine, 
 
 What sympathetic sorrow gently stole! 
 Her hand she laid impulsively on mine 
 
 While tears proclaimed her tenderness of soul. 
 
 17 
 
 Memory most blest ! I reverently recall 
 
 Those tears of sympathy that day so freely given. 
 
 Such single-hearted grief! When such tears fall 
 Their radiance surely reaches unto highest heaven ! 
 
 Yet smiling through her tears with such sweet grace 
 Her tears from smiles seemed such a charm to 
 borrow 
 
They added lustre to her lovely face 
 
 And were adorning pearls, not veil of sorrow. 
 
 18 
 
 " Then I must wait for time to bring such 
 
 powers? " 
 
 After a thoughtful pause, she gently said. 
 " For Life and Grief go hand-clasped through the 
 
 hours ; 
 
 I ll surely let you know if e er their dread 
 Dark presence doth me with this gift endow. 
 
 But now, please play some inspiration given 
 Since last we met." With throbbing heart and 
 
 brow 
 I played as with a power direct from heaven. 
 
 19 
 
 The burning thoughts that filled me in that hour 
 
 The love that I so sternly had concealed 
 Thrilled through my strains with a newly-awak 
 ened power 
 
 That each emotion of my heart revealed. 
 I paused and looked into those eyes of blue 
 
 That drooped beneath my ardent gaze (Ah then 
 I trembled!) " This I wrote and thought of you," 
 
 I whispered as I touched the keys again. 
 
 SONG 
 
 My love is a garden of spices fair 
 
 Where myrrh, and balm, and spikenard, grow 
 But none may breathe these odors rare 
 
 Save winds of heaven that changing blow. 
 
For a garden inclosed, a fountain sealed : * 
 Sweets undisclosed, streams unrevealed 
 Is this sweet love of mine. 
 
 Down on it gaze the stars above. 
 
 (O happy stars!) The skies I d be 
 That with ten thousand eyes of love 
 
 I might each heavenly beauty see 
 Or e en a bee that sips its blooms; 
 Or wind that breathes its sweet perfumes. 
 Alas! it may not be. 
 
 But when I sleep, my heart awakes 
 And flees to where its garlands twine 
 
 And my untrammelled soul partakes 
 Of bliss that only then is mine. 
 
 What passion-flowers then round me rise 
 
 Flame-hearted, whose deep chalices 
 Diffuse perfumes divine! 
 
 I hear the sound of falling streams; 
 
 Soft voices murmur in the grove ; 
 A mist melodious fills my dreams, 
 
 And all my spirit draws to Love : - 
 Her lips like lilies drop perfumes 
 Her lustrous eyes the night illum ns 
 And me to transports move; 
 
 " My love is a garden inclosed, a fountain sealed. 
 Solomon. 
 
 5 2 
 
Wherever sweetest spices fall, 
 
 Where myrrhy trees drop gums, where flowers 
 Throw showers of incense over all 
 
 She leads me to her blissful bowers: 
 My spirit pants to joys divine. 
 O would such dreams might e er be mine 
 Nor wake to lonely hours! 
 
 My love is a fountain crystal clear 
 Whose sparkling waters are divine 
 
 Though all my soul faints for its cheer 
 It never, never, may be mine 
 
 For a garden inclosed, a fountain sealed 
 
 Sweets undisclosed, streams unrevealed 
 Is this fair love of mine. 
 
 O blessed fount of all delight! 
 
 My heart is famished for the streams 
 That, like a glittering mirage bright 
 
 Haunt evermore my fevered dreams. 
 O longing heart of mine, give o er! 
 
 For Flower and Fountain cease to pine. 
 Thy fate to fast mid bounteous store, 
 
 And thirst where foams the wine! 
 
 8 
 
 The sun adown the western sky 
 Sinks into dreamy, deathlike rest; 
 
 The wandering airs of summer die 
 Upon the ocean s heaving breast. 
 
 Oh, were I as the air, the sun 
 
 This breaking heart would die upon 
 
 Thy heart my love, and rest. 
 
 53 
 
20 
 
 Was I too bold ? trembling I looked at her 
 
 Upon her hand, her dainty head reclined 
 Her cheeks with deepest blushes tinted were 
 
 While on her hair, disheveled by the wind 
 The sunbeams through the window leaped and 
 spread 
 
 Their golden rays, and like an angel blest 
 They with a glittering aureole crowned her head 
 
 And kissed to warmth the roses on her breast. 
 
 21 
 
 They glimmered on her laces sheer and fine 
 
 While on her draperies, falling fold on fold 
 They wrought in gleaming gold a rare design 
 
 Like some all-wise artificer of old. 
 Standing beside the window in sweet grace 
 
 With tears of love s own passion glittering where 
 Sweet smiles and blushes mingled on her face 
 
 She made a picture most divinely fair. 
 
 22 
 
 My soul grew weak, for O how hard for me 
 
 To feel love-languid, questioning, tearful eyes 
 Resting on mine yet never dare to see 
 
 To hold in leash the passion that would rise. 
 She turned aside and smote the light guitar 
 
 Soft as Eolian harps by zephyrs rung 
 Arose the strains while by the lattice bar 
 
 I stood and improvising gayly sung! 
 
 A minstrel at a lattice 
 
 Stood and of his love sang he : 
 " O have you seen my Queen of Hearts? 
 
 54 
 
Fairest of fair is she! 
 Crowned by the golden sunbeams 
 
 She like a goddess stands 
 And music flows in strains divine 
 
 From her diviner hands. 
 
 She is of all earth s jewels 
 
 The dearest and the best 
 And ever will her image be 
 
 Upon this heart impressed 
 An image fair and debonair 
 
 Pure as an angel blest 
 With sunbeams on her brighter hair 
 
 And roses on her breast. 
 
 Her brow is like to ivory 
 
 That gleameth in the sun 
 But never ivory was so fair 
 
 So sweet to look upon 
 So sweet to look upon 
 
 And O her glancing eye 
 Tis brighter far than love s own star 
 
 That gems the morning sky! 
 
 Her voice is like the zephyr 
 
 That soft at evening sighs 
 And when she sings methinks I hear 
 
 Angels in Paradise. 
 No sweeter sang Cecilia 
 
 When she drew the angel throng 
 Down from celestial, blissful heights 
 
 To listen to her song. 
 
 55 
 
And, though to songs of heaven 
 
 Hers seems a glad refrain 
 Yet the dewy rosebloom of her lips 
 
 Is sweeter than the strain! 
 And could I by some magic 
 
 Transform self and transpose 
 O in the song I d hide to kiss 
 
 The mouth through which it flows! 
 
 Or I would be a fragrant rose 
 
 Within her garden bowers 
 For when by dew-drops bright impearled 
 
 Perfuming young-eyed Hours 
 Perchance my Lady passing 
 
 Would see, and O how blest 
 Were I if she would pluck and take 
 
 Me to her snowy breast! 
 
 7 
 
 Ah me ! How poor are phrases 
 
 Such love as mine to tell 
 Yet had I words I dare not speak 
 
 So high my love doth dwell. 
 O bitter love and hopeless 
 
 That pales the lip and cheek! 
 Such love fills all this burdened heart 
 
 That breaks but will not speak. 
 
 8 
 
 Yet even to the woes of love 
 
 All other joys are vain 
 If it bring death, tis sweet to die 
 
 Of love s exquisite pain. 
 And when in death I m lying 
 
 56 
 
Should Pride around me stand 
 Say that my love was as nobly given 
 As the highest in the land. 
 
 Alas, alas, life s roses 
 
 Will ne er on earth be mine! 
 And ever must this burdened heart 
 
 In hopeless longing pine! 
 Yet, Lady, would that rose so white 
 
 Upon thy breast, were mine 
 Twere worth a hundred kisses pressed 
 
 On lips less sweet than thine ! " 
 
 22 
 
 She blushed, but spoke not; pale as if from pain 
 
 She with a gentle stately grace arose 
 And passed from thence, but yet without disdain, 
 
 For ere she went, she kissed and gave the rose. 
 That is the rose I shewed thee friend of mine 
 
 I ve treasured it through weary months and years. 
 Tis weak you say in hopeless grief to pine. 
 
 Yet oft I ve wept upon it bitter tears. 
 
 It tells me, friend, though from her parted long 
 
 We once together " sank the stars to sleep " 
 And doth recall how then in mutual song 
 
 Our souls seemed one, and so remembering weep, 
 Forgive me friend that oft I ve absent seemed, 
 
 Twas then her spirit seemed to linger near 
 And many nights how oft of her I ve dreamed 
 
 And fed my mind that died for want of her! 
 
 57 
 
IX 
 
 The palace looked o er broad fields to the ocean : 
 
 From the square casements of its antique towers 
 One plainly saw the waves, when in commotion 
 
 Foam like a field of wind-blown, snow-white 
 
 flowers. 
 Beyond green hills the towering mountains rose 
 
 Whose rugged frames disguised by mighty trees 
 Did many a gorge and shadowy vale disclose 
 
 Where sparkling waters wooed the cooling breeze. 
 
 Here oft we d wander to some upland high 
 
 When sunset rays bright as an angel s wing 
 Did soar and sail far up the shining sky 
 
 As if to heaven itself they would upspring. 
 Then would we climb the upward, rock-strewn way 
 
 Where in wild loveliness sweet flowers did bloom, 
 With many a pause the landscape to survey 
 
 Till daylight died in evening s purple gloom 
 
 Till daylight died, and the waning moon hung low 
 
 A horn of silver in the darkening skies 
 Then homeward took our way, idly and slow 
 
 Watching the glowing stars with dreamful eyes. 
 Sweet Summer-Night ! How like an Af ric queen 
 
 Adorned with gems! Diamonds so rarely bright 
 Ne er decked the crown of Eastern king I ween 
 
 Nor on the brow of beauty shed such light 
 
 58 
 
As thy refulgent stars ! Still shining young 
 
 And clear as when they shone on ancient Troy 
 Or e en that morn when earth from chaos sprung 
 
 When all the sons of God did shout for joy, 
 And all the morning stars together sung! 
 But not of this we thought, our eyes aglow 
 
 With thoughts our trembling lips left all untold 
 We silent sat, or with voice soft and low 
 
 I sang to her some romant strange and old. 
 
 Or, listening to the deeply sounding sea 
 
 Whose endless roar by distance softened, swept 
 A music o er our hearts, all tremblingly 
 
 They to life s deepest, subtlest meaning leapt. 
 At such an hour, my soul on joyous wing 
 
 Above my life s perplexities so real 
 And all material things would high upspring 
 
 Unto a realm pure, perfect and ideal. 
 
 Where to live and love, immortally were one ; 
 
 Where justice reigned, and all mankind were 
 
 free ; 
 Where Rank s pride-gilded barriers were unknown : 
 
 Where Science hand-clasped with sweet Poesy; 
 And the " almighty Power of Good " o er sea 
 And earth and air held sublime victory. 
 
 7 
 
 Within the centre of one verdant lawn 
 
 There gushed a sparkling fountain crystal clear 
 
 When day declined by kindred feelings drawn 
 We sometimes met and sat together there. 
 
 And there one eve while listening to its song 
 
 59 
 
Mingling with nightingale s, up in the trees 
 Watching the white doves soar and wheel and 
 
 throng 
 I sang, until my Lady came, words like these : 
 
 SONG 
 
 Why lingers my loved one? The daylight is 
 
 over. 
 Hush ! nightingales, hush ! Your songs loud 
 
 and clear 
 
 That, longing and listening, I first may discover 
 The light sound that tells me her footsteps draw 
 
 near. 
 Trim thy lamp, O thou planet of Love high above; 
 
 her 
 
 And lighten the pathway of thy more than com 
 peer! 
 
 O white doves that hover, where the fountain brims 
 
 over, 
 To seek your dark coverts, tis time now, tis 
 
 time! 
 For truly my Lady keeps tryst with her lover 
 
 At this hour when sweetly the vesper bells chime. 
 Oh bells ! ring as never before, and discover 
 To her all the grandeur of love in its prime. 
 
 3 
 
 The night-dews are falling on meadows and clover; 
 
 The stars are appearing in darkening skies. 
 On my deep spirit, where the dark shadows hover 
 
 Thou star of my soul, arise, O arise ! 
 60 
 
And let song and love, heaven s lights, impend 
 
 over 
 
 Around and about us rapturous-wise! 
 
 O Moon in the east, so wan and dim-shining ! 
 
 I have seen you at full in your bright silver car, 
 Tis well that tonight your rays are declining 
 For my Lady would outshine you as the sun doth 
 
 the star. 
 And thou fair Hesperus, that so brightly doth 
 
 sparkle 
 
 A clear shining jewel on the evening skies, 
 Soon, soon, as if clouded thy brightness will darkle 
 Eclipsed by the brightness that gleams from her 
 eyes! 
 
 Hasten! heart s dearest! The daylight is over; 
 
 All sadly the hours of waiting have passed: 
 Long hours dividing my love from her lover. 
 
 Hasten ! Oh hasten ! For the time will fly fast. 
 The last light has faded the west wind, the rover 
 
 Flies where the forest his shadows have cast. 
 She cometh ! All joys around seem to hover 
 
 And cares fly away like a leaf in the blast. 
 And my soul to my love forever and ever 
 
 Like a flood at its full, surges wildly and fast. 
 And when she came how sweet the long twi 
 light, 
 
 The gloaming dim, whose light s soft shadowy 
 
 ray 
 Did as a strange and silvery clasp unite 
 
 Night s darkness with the lingering light of day! 
 Sometimes we talked gazing on starbeam bright, 
 
 Sometimes we sang, touching the light guitar. 
 Soft was her voice as sphere music raying light 
 61 
 
From silvery portals of the evening star. 
 One eve when sunset fires tinged all the blue 
 
 And rose-red vapors through the heavens up- 
 
 sprang 
 While seaward, curlews, like black meteors, flew 
 
 My Lady smote the strings, and softly sang: 
 
 SONG 
 
 " Love, for one day only came, and made life one 
 glad song. 
 
 Oh, he was honey-sweet and fair to see! 
 As if on angel s wings those hours sped swift along. 
 
 Ah, happy day, could you not stay with me ? 
 
 But sad-browed Night came down, and covered all 
 
 the light 
 
 All the glad light of Love s fair sun, ah me ! 
 The death-black Night came down, nor Moon, nor 
 
 Starbeam bright 
 And naught is left but darkness unto me. 
 
 Alas! Alas! if distant lands, or wide, wide seas 
 Had parted us and did my love detain 
 
 I had not hopeless been, for some kind breeze 
 Would waft him back to love me true again! 
 
 4 
 
 But he is dead, and, in the grave, O God ! and 
 
 gone! 
 
 Oh still I dream e en though the dream be 
 vain 
 
 62 
 
Of a sweet vale of all delights, where I anon 
 Shall live and love, and light be mine again ! " 
 
 Thrilled with emotions that precluded speech 
 
 We sat awhile in silence, then I said 
 " Goethe the depths of woe essayed to reach 
 
 His Sorrows of Werther thou hast doubtless 
 
 read?" 
 She shook her head, then murmured gently " Try 
 
 Master, in song, this sad love to portray." 
 She lightly smote the strings, while slowly I 
 
 Arose, and improvising did essay 
 This hopeless love to sing, yet also strove 
 
 In subtle measures to express my love. 
 
 WERTHER TO CHARLOTTE 
 
 Afar on the horizon s rim 
 Gleam palely fair, and faintly dim 
 
 Blue skies which stoop to kiss the rippling sea: 
 Desire of such a union sweet 
 As where the skies and waters meet 
 
 Stirs all my soul in longings deep for thee. 
 
 If I but faintly hear thy name 
 
 Through my being like a flame 
 Rushes the vermeil flood, and all my heart 
 
 Bursts into living bloom 
 
 Filling with heaven s perfume 
 The garden of my soul whose rose thou art! 
 
 63 
 
Or if to me thou comest near, 
 And thy sweet voice in song I hear 
 
 Melts all my soul in saddest, tenderest yearning, 
 My tearful eyes in fond delight 
 Gaze on thy features, smiling bright 
 
 And in thy face seem heaven itself discerning. 
 
 And yesterday forgive ! forgive ! 
 
 Ah, then I should have ceased to live ! 
 For the first time I felt love s rapture in my soul ! 
 
 Still, still, burns on these lips of mine 
 
 The sacred fire received from thine 
 What oceans of delight did whelming roll!* 
 
 In the blest Paradise thus brought 
 
 Nothing was left, no wish, no thought 
 All bliss in those short moments was enshrined 
 
 In thy embraces glorified 
 
 My yearning tears were straightway dried 
 But ah, the harsh farewell was hid behind! 
 
 All things of earth will pass away 
 All mortal hopes will know decay 
 
 But eternity cannot destroy the flame 
 Which was enkindled by thy kiss 
 And which now fills my soul with bliss 
 
 Such love immortal is, from heaven it came. 
 
 * Werther s exact words transposed from Goethe s 
 Sorrows of Werther." 
 
 64 
 
Think not I dream or idly rave 
 
 For drawing nearer to the grave 
 My spirit rapt transcending sense and time 
 
 Sees calm in changeless bliss above 
 
 Our souls united still in love; 
 Eternity our bridal day sublime." 
 
 How sweet those hours my friend ! For, evermore 
 
 Music with angel wings around did move 
 And then we felt, to being s inmost core 
 
 The " twofold joy of music and of love." 
 When by her side no fears disturbed my breast, 
 
 So all-complete was love s sweet sovereignty; 
 But when alone sad prescience without rest 
 
 Forever sighed " Soon must thou parted be! " 
 
 One day I wandered by a river, whose bright waves 
 
 went murmuring ever 
 On their way slow-winding to the far-off, vast 
 
 and unknown sea 
 Like the stream of life e er flowing, to eternity not 
 
 knowing 
 Whence it cometh, whither going yet, which 
 
 e er obediently 
 
 To a law divine, supernal, all unchanging and 
 eternal 
 
 Floweth onward ceaselessly. 
 
 Nature, that day, had gone Maying, winds were 
 
 fluttering flowers and playing; 
 Maybells with white foam were spraying grassy 
 slopes and meadows green; 
 
 65 
 
While from many a leafy dwelling such a choir of 
 
 notes rose welling 
 Through the mazy shadows, telling to each 
 
 listener, though all unseen 
 What blest hearts the wildwood covers, what 
 
 spring-quickened happy lovers 
 Whose sweet song e er hangs and hovers, in each 
 ear that hears I ween 
 
 As in the leafy glade terrene. 
 
 On I sauntered, scarcely knowing, where my truant 
 
 steps were going 
 Whether in the wood s recesses, or with the 
 
 river to the sea: 
 
 Heeding not sweet breezes blowing, nor white haw 
 thorn blossoms snowing 
 Distant landscapes, nor the growing leaves upon 
 
 the oaken tree; 
 
 Where a wood thrush, wildly singing on an airy 
 bough light swinging 
 
 Poured her soul in ecstasy. 
 
 For I walked as in a vision in bright sunlit fields 
 
 Elysian 
 Where my fancy s vain prevision wove illusions 
 
 all the way 
 Woodland groves seemed bowers Arcadian where 
 
 with me a radiant maiden 
 Walked as happy as in Aiden blest immortals 
 
 joyous stray, 
 
 Or as those thy fanes enwreathing on some ancient 
 festal day 
 
 O Venus Amathusia! 
 66 
 
Surely twas a realm enchanted for in dell and 
 
 glade bird-haunted, 
 All the trembling leaves in all the budding, 
 
 blooming, beauteous way 
 And the winds were whispering ever one sweet 
 
 word they both together 
 Whispered to the sighing river, and the birds too, 
 
 sang it blithe and gay 
 
 And this word was " Love, love " ever, only that I 
 heard them say 
 
 By the river that sweet day. 
 
 And I knew by blue waves gleaming that the river 
 
 too was dreaming 
 Felt its soul to mine responding in a strange, 
 
 mysterious way 
 Then I cried " Oh, tell me river, is not love of 
 
 life the giver 
 Doth it not throughout creation, highest sweetest 
 
 joys convey? 
 Softly as light winds that shiver, answered low the 
 
 dreamful river 
 
 Love is Eden recreated, where eternal spring 
 holds sway 
 
 E en as in earth s primal day." 
 
 Slyly smiled the swaying daisies in the tangled 
 
 meadow mazes 
 
 And the birds, each to his sweet mate nodding 
 sagely seemed to say 
 
 " Of heaven and earth love is the flower, the es 
 sence blest the subtle power 
 
Of joy, e en in this woodland bower, and is of 
 
 good the root and branch alway." 
 Well they knew without my telling, all the love- 
 born fancies swelling 
 
 From the heart s deep fountains welling, as their 
 joyous songs so gay 
 
 Wells in the flowery month of May. 
 
 8 
 
 But amidst those vernal bowers, clinging vines and 
 
 fluttering flowers 
 As a dove that moans and cowers, came the 
 
 Wind s voice, sad, unmusical 
 And all weirdly sung " Remember, autumn comes, 
 
 and chill December 
 
 Then as fades the dying ember, all the flowers 
 will fade and fall." 
 
 "The flowers," I sighed, "must 
 perish all." 
 
 9 
 
 And beneath the love-born gladness was an under 
 tone of sadness 
 That ever whispered " Oh, what madness ! and, 
 
 sadly prescient sighed alway 
 And ever murmured " Never! Never! " Then me- 
 
 thought I heard the river 
 
 Saying softly " You must sever," as it swept 
 through meadows gay 
 
 With brightly tinted flowers of 
 May. 
 
 10 
 
 And as came to Dante hieing, through the shades of 
 
 hell the sighing 
 
 Sounds of bitter woe undying so those voices 
 came to me 
 
 68 
 
And my heart with knowledge stricken, all too sure 
 
 for hope to quicken 
 In my breast did faint and sicken, knowing well 
 
 what life did hold for me 
 Knowing well cursed pride of station, wealth, and 
 
 titled, high cognation 
 
 Would with bitter indignation, tear my love, my 
 life, from me 
 
 My own by love s affinity. 
 
 II 
 
 At these thoughts my soul appalling, showers of 
 
 tears gan swiftly falling 
 And while birds were sweetly calling to their 
 
 mates from spray to spray 
 Down upon the ground in sorrow, fell I, knowing 
 
 some tomorrow 
 We must part (O words of horror!) part and 
 
 fare alone alway. 
 
 Oh, on that day, prone I fell and wept my soul 
 away. 
 
 Twas in the flowery month of 
 May. 
 
 X 
 
 Thus all that summer passed, and autumn came, 
 And with it came the family to the Hall. 
 
 Unmindful of their eyes we met the same, 
 
 Our guileless souls thought not of fear or blame. 
 Soon came the end, the last scene I recall. 
 
 That morning she was silent, cold and sad: 
 
 I questioned her, trembling, she said that we 
 
 Must meet no more, her father had forbade. 
 
Her voice choked, through tears she looked at me. 
 
 Oh, what a look ! her soul was in her eyes ! 
 All I forgot, wealth, pride, and ancestry 
 
 I only saw that look and heard those sighs. 
 I flung myself before her pleadingly, 
 
 Caught her sweet hand, which to my lips I pressed, 
 And then in wild and broken w T ords revealed 
 
 The all-consuming love, that in my breast 
 I had so long with stern resolve concealed. 
 
 It was the bursting of the long-pent flood 
 
 Of deep, deep love, she could not choose but 
 
 hear 
 The passionate words. Sobbing with grief she 
 
 stood 
 While down her cheek coursed warm a pearly 
 
 tear. 
 "Weep not! Oh, sob not thus!" I cried, " Thy 
 
 grief, 
 
 Will madden me. Oh, grieve not, dearest one! 
 Oh, do not take it ill, but past belief 
 
 Is the great love that hath my peace undone! " 
 
 " Forgive! forgive! But by these burning tears, 
 
 By all my hours haunted of thee alone, 
 Oh, by thyself, I swear, not through the years 
 
 Of any age hath greater love been known 
 Purer or holier than that which now 
 
 Burns in my soul for thee, my love, my own 
 Once I will call thee so ! Oh scorn not thou 
 
 And blight the heart that beats for thee alone! 
 70 
 
Is there no voice within thy heart that pleads 
 
 For me? No answering instinct, sweet divine 
 That draws thy heart to mine, and intercedes 
 
 As mine is drawn by sympathy to thine? 
 O Lady wilt thou never know the heart 
 
 That breaks in hopeless love for thee, for thee? 
 And canst thou say, that thou must soon depart 
 
 With thy stern sire, to lands beyond the sea? 
 
 Must part! It cannot be! Why Lady thou 
 
 Thou art my life, my natural element 
 Wherein I breathe. My food! Oh, tell me how 
 
 How can I live from thee in banishment? 
 I ask not for thy love, I do not dare, 
 
 My heart, yea all my spirit s deep intensity 
 Was freely given, without one thought or care, 
 
 And for thy sake in silence, worshiped thee. 
 
 Oh say but once thou hatest me not for this. 
 
 Speak! Alas! thou weepest. Weep not for me 
 My gentle love ; O, what unthought of bliss 
 
 To weep for me ! Thy father can it be ? 
 Has threatened thee? Then come, this faithful 
 
 heart 
 Will shelter thee. Through life, in death, al- 
 
 way! 
 
 What joy to toil for thee! Oh not to part, 
 We cannot ! But speak, and say some sweet 
 day 
 
8 
 
 Thou too mayst love, and in another clime 
 
 Some happier land, leagues, leagues, beyond 
 
 this sea 
 Thou wilt be mine. O, then the sands of Time 
 
 Will golden be! Then I will live for thee, 
 There will I kneel to thee and worship thee 
 
 And call thee my beloved, my own, my wife! 
 O, wilt thou, wilt thou, fly afar with me 
 
 Where love united may find fullest life? 
 
 To some fair land of sunshine, fruits and flowers 
 
 And crystal lakes arched o er by shadowy trees 
 Where verdurous mountains rise, around whose 
 towers 
 
 Untrammeled flow the freshening wind that 
 
 breathes 
 Odors from sweet spice islands nestling low 
 
 Upon the ocean s softly heaving breast 
 Tis there, tis there ! beloved we will go 
 
 And sheltered in my heart thou wilt be blest! 
 
 10 
 
 And there when evening s softest zephyr sips 
 
 Sweet fragrance from a thousand blooms unseen 
 The sweeter odor from thy rosered lips 
 
 I then would breathe. And I would swooning 
 
 lean 
 Body and soul, and mind, with joy oppressed 
 
 Upon the comfort of thy truest, dearest breast. 
 Firm is my love as the enduring heaven 
 
 The fixed and constant stars shall ever be 
 So true as is this heart, thus freely given ! 
 
 Oh I am all thine own ! believe thou me. 
 72 
 
1 1 
 
 Nor pain nor sorrow, neither fleeting breath 
 
 Nor the dark icy grave shall chill my love; 
 It will survive beyond the bounds of death 
 
 And stronger grow, in brighter worlds above ! 
 For we will rise together ; and together roam 
 
 The starry radiant dwellings of the blest, 
 And still together, in the heart s sweet home 
 
 Love s blest Elysium, find eternal rest. 
 
 12 
 
 Weep not for me, my queen. O naught am I 
 
 Not worth a single tear! I will depart 
 Or may I kiss away one tear that dims that eye? 
 
 Well ! well, I will not pain thy gentle 
 
 heart ! 
 But Lady weep not! Dearest heart, forgive! 
 
 I will be wise (O passionate heart be still!) 
 I know I should not speak, but oh I live 
 
 Only for thee, and ever, ever will 
 My love endure! Oh, give me leave to rise 
 
 Up from thy feet and look into thine eyes! 
 
 13 
 
 My words were wild, for I was mad with love. 
 
 She trembled, weeping wildly, stooping low 
 To where I knelt she clasped my hand and strove 
 
 To lift me, murmuring as she did so, " Oh 
 What matters it beloved? Wealth or fame? 
 
 I do abhor those ideal empty things. 
 Do we not love? Is there a higher claim 
 
 Than that which from the heart s deep fountain 
 
 springs? 
 
 73 
 
What matters it, my dearest and my best, 
 
 That we should live unnoticed and unknown? 
 So we together live we will be blest. 
 
 With thee I ll go! I cannot be alone! 
 I will not leave thee ! Such a paradise 
 
 Is perfect love, earth s pomps will be forgot! 
 And I will live for thee and in thine eyes 
 
 Find my heart s heaven, all else will be as 
 naught! " 
 
 15 
 
 I clasped her, crying fondly, " Love! O Love! 
 
 And wouldst thou from thy lofty state stoop 
 
 down 
 With me to humbly live thy love to prove? 
 
 Oh, now in truth thou dost my being crown! 
 But no! Oh, no! my gracious queen! my words 
 
 Were wild, Forgive ! Oh, one more, one 
 
 more kiss 
 Beloved on lips and brow, heaven affords 
 
 To its blest saints, no deeper joy than this, 
 
 16 
 
 Ah, once again, again, before we part 
 
 Clasp me, and make me thine, as mine thou art! " 
 A footstep startled us. She whispered " Go, 
 
 We ll meet again ! " I quickly turned and passed 
 From thence. Ah me! How could I know 
 
 It was of all our happy hours the last? 
 But so it was. That scene was but the seal 
 
 Upon the tomb of hours forever fled, 
 By which, like some soul lost to heaven s weal, 
 
 Sad Memory sits, and weeps the lost and dead. 
 
 74 
 
XI 
 
 Next morning s Post a letter brought to me 
 
 Informing me in words suave and bland 
 " My services no more would needed be 
 
 They were to travel in a foreign land ! " 
 Stunned by the sudden blow, for days my heart 
 
 Seemed smouldering in a slow consuming fire: 
 No reasoning could of joy one gleam impart 
 
 All thought, all life was merged in the desire 
 
 To see her face. Through hours of listless pain 
 
 And hopelessness I brooded day by day. 
 Naught I desired but that, and to live again 
 
 The old life would have given my soul away. 
 Go where I would my eyes were sick to see 
 
 The old familiar scenes, the park, the shore 
 The fount, the wood, but more, oh more to me 
 
 The lovelit eyes that I saw never more. 
 
 I traveled then. Yet like Dante of olden time 
 
 " Looking back ever and ever, with eyes of 
 
 blinded pain," 
 My ears all sick to hear whate er the scene or clime 
 
 The music of a voice I ne er should hear again. 
 Like to the wounded hare, the stricken hind 
 
 To nature s deepest wilds I took my way 
 Hoping upon her breast my heart might find 
 
 Some healing balm that would its pain allay. 
 
 75 
 
" O mother Earth! " I cried, " upon thy breast 
 
 Thy sad, thy weary, heart-sick children holding 
 And in thy silent arms so kind and blest 
 
 Creation vast in sympathy infolding 
 Who with thy varied gifts so richly bless 
 
 From birth till death, e en all of living kind 
 Oh may my stricken heart in its distress 
 
 Upon thy bosom, peace and healing find ! " 
 
 Filled with a wild unrest that urged me on 
 
 I wandered aimlessly through many lands 
 Through pathless wilds and forests dense, anon 
 
 Bleak icy plains and burning desert sands. 
 One evening found me climbing the ascent 
 
 Steep, water-worn, of a high mountain range 
 As up I toiled, swift streams and foliage lent 
 
 Beauty to scenes of grandeur wildly strange. 
 
 O er mountain steep and high the rough pass wound 
 
 Mid fragments huge, and shaggy chasms deep 
 Into whose depth with rushing, roaring sound 
 
 White-foaming cataracts did wildly leap. 
 O er rocks, impetuous torrents, hurled headlong 
 
 Seeking in haste the green and flowery vale; 
 While stony caverns echoing did prolong 
 
 The hollow murmurs of the rising gale. 
 
 I mounted bravely up the rude ascent 
 
 Though perilous the path, and wearisome 
 
 For to me came " The victories of ascent 
 And joy of life in steepness overcome." 
 76 
 
Arrived aloft I found the sunset sheen 
 Softly enveiling all in golden light 
 
 Around, beneath was spread so fair a scene 
 I gazed about some moments with delight. 
 
 8 
 
 An upland fair spread out of vast expanse 
 
 Where valleys green branched in deep winding 
 
 ways ; 
 Bright gleams of water did the eye entrance 
 
 Flashing and flaming neath Sol s westering rays. 
 Beneath my feet the mountain ranges spread, 
 
 Enwrapped in forest verdure, fold on fold ; 
 The more majestic summits o er my head 
 
 Alone looked down from heights serene and cold. 
 
 But to the west ! O how they towered on high ! 
 
 Mountains against mountains seemingly were 
 
 hurled, 
 Their savage peaks like spears did pierce the sky, 
 
 The jagged crown it was of that majestic world. 
 And every spire and peak that towered there 
 
 Bathed in the sunset s golden, glowing light 
 Against the sky s soft amethystine air 
 
 Appeared like gold, tinted and shining bright. 
 
 10 
 
 And all was still ! Around no sound did float 
 
 Save where in secret depths the hid cascades 
 Gave rippling music, or the strident note 
 
 Of night bird rising from the forest shades; 
 Then as a shadow vast, slowly the night 
 
 Descended. Brightly on heaven s etheric plain 
 I saw with heart-enkindled eyes of light 
 
 The crescent moon and all her starry train. 
 
 77 
 
II 
 
 How beautiful! With joy akin to pain 
 I gazed upon the stars that seemed to scan 
 
 With eyes of trembling pity, the benighted vain 
 Self-torturing lot of feeble mortal man. 
 
 Poor pensioner of the hour (I mused) whose 
 
 breath 
 
 Is like the mists the morning suns consume 
 * Swifter than arrow s flight this life then 
 
 death - 
 From gloom to earthly life, from thence to gloom. 
 
 12 
 
 Whither? Who knoweth? Mute are the heavenly 
 spheres 
 
 The rocks beneath eternal silence keep; 
 In language that hath no interpreters 
 
 Mysteriously "Deep calleth unto deep." 
 The world stays not, and none may stem the tide 
 
 Of time that to eternity doth flow; 
 Great nations rise and into darkness glide, 
 
 Suns rise and set, and seasons come and go 
 
 13 
 
 And ever, and all not only this great sphere 
 
 But all the varied lives that on it thrive 
 Enwrapping it in a living atmosphere 
 
 Where growth, decline, life, death, forever 
 strive 
 
 Doth unto law unalterable conform 
 Inexorable and the united arm 
 
 Of all the living races could not turn 
 From its fixed course one star of all that swarm 
 
 The vault above and in bright glory burn. 
 78 
 
No thrilling song of joy, no shriek of pain 
 
 Sent up from Life s great heart through all the 
 
 years 
 Can of the deathlike silence ear attain 
 
 As she sits throned among the shining spheres. 
 Face to face with those stupendous mountains 
 
 Standing in deep abstraction, silent, still 
 Such hopeless views troubled my thought s clear 
 fountains 
 
 And dark dejection did my being fill. 
 
 15 
 
 " Why were we born to suffer? " I asked the ques 
 tion 
 
 That all humanity asks, and asks in vain ! 
 " Since first it being had the whole creation 
 
 With groanings deep, travails in mortal pain. 
 "Alas!" I sighed, "I cannot comprehend; 
 
 Reason! God-given, I will of thee inquire?" 
 " He that created shall not He defend? 
 
 The finite may not to the infinite aspire! 
 
 16 
 
 Every truthful light of science burning; 
 
 Every lofty heaven-granted power, 
 Every wise brain, hidden truths discerning, 
 
 Do they not clearly teach us hour by hour 
 That within the world around, beneath us 
 
 As within the heaven high above 
 There is one continual living presence 
 
 Of almighty help, and peace, and love? 
 
 79 
 
And conscience, that clear flame forever bright! 
 
 God s image, his oracle in the breast 
 Proving its truth by its intrinsic light : 
 
 Bear witness of that light, O soul! and rest! " 
 Great visions then assailed my tranced mind 
 
 I felt the pulse of that immortal life 
 Which pours its flood through all of living kind ; 
 And those high heavenly harmonies divined 
 
 To which creation moves beyond all strife. 
 
 18 
 
 Ne er had I Nature known until that hour 
 
 That she was One, my mother, and divine; 
 Not dead the earth but filled with living power 
 
 Whose spirit held communion deep with mine. 
 And all around the glory of a day 
 
 Fairer than mankind hath ever known 
 Through lightening shadows of an orient gray 
 
 With promise of sure coming, softly shone. 
 
 19 
 
 Though nature (upward striving) sore travails 
 
 And from dark ills to be delivered groans 
 Until God s breath of love (which e er prevails) 
 
 Shall from his everlasting throne of thrones 
 Proceed and kindle upon the Phoenix fire 
 
 Out of which the " New heaven and New earth " 
 As gold seven times refined shall aspire 
 
 And man shall live a life of highest worth. 
 
 20 
 
 The spell was broken by the sound 
 
 Of carriage wheels that up the stony pass 
 
 Did slowly climb, to where in thought profound 
 I dimly stood beneath a towering mass 
 80 
 
Of rock. It was a gay barouch-and-fouf 
 Familiar was the livery on the forms 
 
 Of servants and outriders on the door 
 Engilded was my patron s coat-of-arms ! 
 
 21 
 
 Few moments driving brought them near. O 
 heaven ! 
 
 Through the dim light I saw my Lady s face! 
 Yes, she herself ! to none else had been given 
 
 On earth beneath such loveliness and grace! 
 With slight, unknowing bow they onward sped, 
 
 Perchance to joy, to love to all delight, 
 And I ? Cold, cold, and ghastly round my head 
 
 And in my heart gathered the shades of night ! 
 
 22 
 
 Ah, only those whose heart, as mine, have known 
 
 The sickening weariness of vain desire, 
 Heart-hunger unappeased, to famine grown; 
 
 And hopes that ever hopelessly expire 
 Can understand the anguish past control 
 
 When having seen the one so ardently 
 And long desired, thus near me O my soul, 
 
 I could have touched her ! to find she knew not 
 
 me 
 
 23 
 
 Like one distraught I stood until the sound 
 
 Of the receding wheels died on my ear 
 Then as if smitten, prone upon the ground 
 
 I fell and grovelled in my deep despair. 
 Until my manhood rose up angrily 
 
 Crying "Vain is love that feeds on shadows! 
 
 Vain 
 A life self-centered ! Arise, look out and see 
 
 Broad fields white to the harvest that have lain 
 81 
 
24 
 
 Unreaped! Why stand ye idle all the day? 
 
 Arise ! go forth ! for soon the void dark night 
 Of death, doth hasten on its way! 
 
 To work! to work! While yet thou hast life s 
 
 light." 
 Like Jacob, wrestled I, till break of day 
 
 For strength and peace. Sternly determined then 
 Down from the mountain heights I took my way 
 
 And sought once more the busy haunts of men. 
 
 25 
 
 Amid the throng, where men like eagles whet 
 
 Their beaks, to rend the weak for greed of gain 
 I madly plunged, and struggled to forget 
 
 The past, but ah, alas! twas all in vain! 
 For twas her voice that whispered in each breeze 
 
 And as sunlight where water darkliest gleams 
 Her eyes, her smiles, bright as the starlit seas 
 
 Haunted my days and mingled in my dreams. 
 
 26 
 
 Yet ever I worked, and fame, and wealth were 
 
 mine ; 
 
 How worthless to me weak and stricken sore 
 By fell disease! At last there came a time 
 
 (I had but late returned from foreign clime, 
 And learned that she was at the Hall once more) 
 When love, so long repressed, could bear no 
 
 more. 
 
 " I must, I will I wildly cried one day 
 Go to her home, and sing one last sad song 
 Ere death be mine, as when swift ebbs away 
 His life, the swan s notes shrilleth strong! 
 82 
 
27 
 
 "At night when all the winds are breathing low 
 
 My every thought from all save her apart 
 Beneath her window will I softly go. 
 
 That song perchance may ease my aching heart." 
 Fair was that night, and brightly all illum ed 
 
 By moon and stars, shining in heaven above 
 Sweet flowers, dew-ladened, all the air perfumed 
 
 Too sweet a time, for sighs of hopeless love! 
 I heard afar, with deep and mournful sound 
 
 The breakers roar as if in grief profound. 
 
 XII 
 
 I stood beneath her window, murmuring low 
 
 " She softly, gently sleeps, my love! my sweet! 
 And in her peaceful slumbers cannot know 
 
 Where love tonight has led my weary feet; 
 Thus her untrammeled soul can answer free 
 
 The messages that mine to hers would bring 
 And through blest power of music s ministry 
 
 In sweet communion will our souls upspring." 
 
 I touched my lute, the soft strains seemed to rise 
 As did my burning thoughts and upward sprung 
 
 As if they fain would reach the glittering skies 
 And mingle with the quiring spheres. I sung: 
 
Night slowly, sadly falls 
 
 Through ether, darkly blue, 
 Of twilight skies, like pitying eyes 
 
 Stars tremble into view: 
 Day dies and tears of Earth bereft 
 
 Distill in heavy dew. 
 Oh, weep with her for love is gone 
 And night without a star comes on! 
 (Hark! how the wild waves sadly moan!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 Lights glimmer on the land, 
 
 And ship-lights twinkling glow; 
 
 Bright stars above look down in love 
 On land and sea below: 
 
 But thou thou lookest not on me 
 Standing in lonely woe 
 
 Beneath thy window casement, sweet, 
 
 Where love hath led my wandering feet. 
 
 (Hark! How the waves in sorrow greet!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 Lo! The calm moon comes forth! 
 
 By breezes softly blown 
 Comes sweet perfume, from plants abloom 
 
 To me as I stand alone ; 
 And the moon s pale light, on the turret s height 
 
 Like a silver veil is thrown : 
 But the shadows beneath are as dark as death, 
 And the flowers may have the upas breath. 
 (Hark! How the waves moan as in death!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 84 
 
The sea beats wearily 
 
 Upon the yellow sand, 
 And murmuring low the sad waves flow 
 
 Towards some far-off strand 
 Or sobbing in despair they throw 
 
 Themselves against the land, 
 Then rushing swiftly back again 
 They whisper hoarsely, as in pain : 
 (Hark! How they sob as they complain!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 Why do the restless waves 
 
 Forevermore complain? 
 What is the song that all day long 
 
 They sing a wild refrain ? 
 The sad, sad song, that breathes of wrong 
 
 And sobs like a heart in pain. 
 Tis a song of grief, of mad desires 
 Of hope that in despair expires 
 (Hark, how their song in grief suspires!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 O twas a mad, mad thing 
 
 To love a queen so high ! - 
 A queen whose light makes heaven bright 
 
 And all the stars outvie, 
 That pale with fear as they come near 
 
 Her throne in heaven high. 
 Ocean beheld her clear beams falling 
 In days of Eld his heart enthralling. 
 (Hark! now his voice is loudly calling.) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 85 
 
7 
 
 He lifts himself tow rds heaven 
 
 Where she sits with her starry train 
 
 And suppliant stands with foam-flecked hands 
 Then falls in despairing pain 
 
 And breaks on the shore in wild uproar 
 His spray tears fall like rain. 
 
 But the moon heeds not, for her love is given 
 
 To the orb she pursues through the shining heaven. 
 
 (Hark! how the waves flee passion-driven) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 8 
 
 O moon! O queen of mine! 
 
 My heart s the raging sea 
 Within my breast that hath no rest 
 
 That reaches up to thee 
 With longings deep that never sleep 
 
 Forever sighs for thee 
 Clings to thy memory till death 
 Shall stop this feeble, fluttering breath! 
 (Hark thou to what its passion saith!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 Mine eyes fail for thy light 
 
 And oh, for evermore! 
 Like to the waves that shore sand laves 
 
 That break in wild uproar 
 Are all my thoughts that ever flow 
 
 To thee their golden shore 
 Ever to thee their shore and there 
 Break into murmuring despair 
 (Hark how their sad plaint fills the air!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 86 
 
IO 
 
 My face is white and cold 
 
 As the dead in the graves below; 
 
 My heart as with a poisoned dart 
 Is wasted with my woe; 
 
 In every place I see thy face 
 Like a phantom come and go. 
 
 And when at night the wild winds blow 
 
 Alone I wander to and fro. 
 
 (Hark! how the waves all wildly flow!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 II 
 
 I cry aloud, but none, 
 
 None hear my bitter cries; 
 Like to the flood, the tears of blood 
 
 Up from my heart arise 
 Alone with sorrow, and the night 
 
 Am I beneath the skies. 
 And when I fain would rest in sleep 
 What lonely visions round me creep! 
 (Hark! how the waves moan loud and deep!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 12 
 
 loved! O lost! wert thou 
 Dead, lying in thy grave 
 
 1 would gladly go where thou liest low 
 A rest by thy side to crave 
 
 And the darksome tomb a holy room 
 
 Would be as a temple s nave. 
 But thou, love, art resting in happy sleep 
 And softly dream while I weep while I weep. 
 (Hark! how the waves their sad songs keep!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 87 
 
13 
 
 Yet what hast them to do 
 
 With looking from thy height 
 
 On one who sings woes ministerings 
 Through lonely hours of night? 
 
 Thy lofty place the courts of kings 
 Where pride and pomp unite. 
 
 Yet I know that steadfast heart of thine 
 
 Still bears the mark impressed by mine. 
 
 (Hark! how the waves in murmurs pine!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 For love our souls are One 
 
 Beyond e en death s control 
 Linked by this bond, in worlds beyond 
 
 One with thy love my soul 
 Will be for aye as mine with thine 
 
 While endless ages roll. 
 O cursed pride and rank that stood 
 Between two hearts of kindred mood! 
 Thy hire will be the price of blood. 
 (Hark! how the waves roar at their flood!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 15 
 
 Soon my poor life will end 
 
 For when the nights are long 
 And I wander far, sometimes I hear 
 God s voice so soft, yet strong 
 " Sounds heard as light,* then all the night 
 
 Is filled with voiceless song, 
 And a w r hisper breathes " Enough, come in, 
 Through death the perfect life to win." 
 (Hark to the wave s soft ceaseless din!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 Swinburne. 
 
 88 
 
i6 
 
 And when at last I lie 
 
 In my still, narrow home 
 Cold, cold and dead, alone with the dead 
 
 Each in his quiet tomb 
 If at times thy ear should faintly hear, 
 
 When stars doth night illume 
 The sound of a song, or a lute blown along 
 
 Soft as when winds resume 
 On some spring day the marriage lay 
 
 Of bride-white flowers abloom 
 Mine is the voice thou hearest sing 
 And mine is the hand that sweeps the string. 
 (Hark to the waves sad murmuring!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 17 
 
 And if in the turf that forms 
 
 My grave s green covering 
 Above my bosom, a pale, pale blossom 
 
 Some day thou seest upspring 
 Lay there thy lips, tis my soul that awaits 
 
 Thy love s sweet offering: 
 
 And though centuries dead my brow would feel 
 Through the earth thy soft warm kisses steal. 
 (Hark! how the sea to the moon doth appeal!) 
 Caroline, Caroline. 
 
 18 
 
 Yet rest thee, rest thee, love! 
 
 The moon is shining bright; 
 Its beams through leaves, blown by the breeze 
 
 Falls in soft dancing light. 
 God guard and keep thee, heart of mine, 
 
 Through all the hours of night, 
 And happy, holy dreams be thine 
 
Breathed in thy soul by love divine! 
 
 My love, my heart, good night! 
 
 Was I awake or dreaming? I did not know. 
 I seem to feel e en now the wondering thrill 
 
 As when I saw her window move, and lo ! 
 As some fair spirit, pale and white and still 
 There stood my Lady, and albeit I 
 Heard not an uttered word, yet well I knew 
 
 " Farewell " was on her lip and in her eye, 
 Her silent, unexpected, last adieu. 
 
 She stood a moment thus, then silently 
 
 Drew down the blind, and as she did so there 
 Fell at my feet that note which thou didst see 
 
 Wrapped round that treasured curl of golden 
 
 hair. 
 As one that stands at solemn hour at eve 
 
 Beside the grave of some beloved dead 
 And hears a voice, twas thus I did receive 
 
 That note and curl. Trembling with joy I 
 read : 
 
 " When from thee in sad haste I moved 
 
 That morning, all in tears, 
 I did not, could not think, beloved, 
 
 We should not meet for years 
 Nor for long years should hear again 
 Thy music s sweet soul-thrilling strain! 
 90 
 
I scarcely knew until the hour 
 They said that we must part 
 
 The secret of the subtle power 
 That drew to thine my heart: 
 
 Nor knew till then twas love that there 
 
 Had made that summertime so fair. 
 
 Alas that pride of place and blood 
 
 Forbade us more to meet! 
 How dear those looks half understood 
 
 By danger made more sweet ; 
 Thine eyes with such a plaintive shine 
 Fixed with such a pleading look on mine! 
 
 As lightning from clear skies, the blow 
 That parted thee from me: 
 
 Nor cared what land they bore me to 
 I knew it held not thee. 
 
 Bleeding where pride had torn apart 
 
 The links that bound me to thy heart. 
 
 weary struggles! Lonely years 
 In which to still the pain 
 
 1 strove. (Vain task! E en now my tears 
 Fall like the summer rain!) 
 
 How slowly passed each day, each night 
 In lonely longings infinite! 
 
 They say I err, yet it seems to me 
 Higher than rank above 
 
Are days of uncrowned majesty 
 
 That touch the lofty goal where love 
 And duty wreathes in loveliness 
 E en poverty s stern barrenness. 
 
 And though Rank scorn it is my pride 
 
 Thy love was given to me 
 And faithful still whate er betide 
 
 Through life will think of thee. 
 While years have passed since to the Hall 
 We came again how plainly all 
 Its scenes thy presence doth recall! 
 
 8 
 
 The music room where oft we sang 
 
 Speaks to my heart of thee; 
 The mountain steep which up we sprang ;- 
 
 The fountain flowing free, 
 Groves where the flowers in myrtle hidden 
 Breathed odors sweet as those of Eden. 
 
 The rocks we clambered o er at eve 
 
 To see the waves beyond ; 
 Woods where great trees boughs interweave 
 
 Where summer airs despond ; 
 Where nature wove her sweetest spell 
 In every grove and shady dell. 
 
 10 
 
 And all those long, long, golden hours 
 We sat together there! 
 
 9 2 
 
Where breezes soft perfumed by flowers 
 
 Seemed some diviner air! 
 Alas! Each breeze doth now recall 
 Those hours, those sighs memorial. 
 
 ii 
 
 But Oh, how each and every scene 
 
 Still dear to me remain! 
 I cannot bear one thought to wean 
 
 E en though the thought brings pain. 
 And oft I wander o er the lea 
 But ah, not now, as then, with thee! 
 
 12 
 
 The birds within the park s deep wood 
 
 Still sing as on I pass, 
 But now my footsteps as my mood 
 
 Fall silent on the grass; 
 And though around are beauteous forms 
 Alone, they have for me no charms. 
 
 13 
 
 What shall I say my soul s sole friend 
 Of thy ne er forgotten song? 
 
 Its memory cheered me, and did lend 
 Joy to days sad and long: 
 
 How sweet that hour! The wish is vain, 
 
 But oh, to live it o er again ! 
 
 Yes, now deep feeling thrills my strains 
 Fresh from my bleeding heart, 
 
 For Grief and Pain dread powers twain 
 Are of my life a part. 
 
 Those masters stern and hard who long 
 
 Ago taught thee the power of song. 
 
 93 
 
Beloved, we may not meet again 
 But those warm looks last seen 
 
 Will ever in my heart remain, 
 By love kept ever green ; 
 
 How hard to think that they have been 
 
 To ne er be seen by me again! 
 
 16 
 
 But wheresoever my footsteps roam 
 
 Whatever clime or sea, 
 Or in what place may be my home 
 
 Still will I ever be 
 
 Through all the hours that time may lend 
 Ever, as now, thy truest friend. 
 
 17 
 
 And when life s fleeting day shall end 
 
 Our souls unveiled shall prove 
 When spirit doth with spirit blend 
 
 Immortal is such love 
 And purified, a perfect whole 
 
 Doth reawaken with the soul; 
 Until that meeting most divine 
 
 May God be with you, 
 
 Caroline." 
 
 With tearful eyes I read, and read again 
 This fond confession of her faithful heart. 
 
 I pressed it to my lips, my heart, nor then 
 Nor now, nor ever will it from me part ! 
 
 How oft those words have darkened hours il- 
 
 lum ned ! 
 Thou seest the page with usage torn and curled 
 
 94 
 
Oh, place it, friend, beside me in the tomb 
 My dear love-note, unhoped-for in this world! 
 
 How often oh how often have my tears 
 
 Blurred all the letters of these cherished rhymes! 
 And this fair tress through all the dreary years 
 
 I ve kissed it, friend how many hundred times! 
 Though words are vain and all too poor to tell 
 
 How dear her love so fully, freely given 
 Yet still my longing heart would madly dwell 
 
 On closer bonds. I cried " O would that heaven 
 
 Had nearer to my level made her be." 
 
 But if I could, would I have dragged her down 
 From the high station she adorned, with me 
 
 To humbly live ? Never ! My star, my crown ! 
 But I was human, and ever were haunting me 
 
 Sweet thoughts of her as friend, companion, 
 
 wife ; 
 Though well I knew that could never be, 
 
 Such heaven-on-earth was not for my poor life. 
 
 8 
 
 But I have lived, and have not lived in vain 
 
 Since in her heart she bears my memory, 
 And our twin-souls are linked, as with a chain 
 
 In never-dying, heaven-born sympathy. 
 Such immaterial love lives endlessly 
 
 For it is heavenly born and cannot die. 
 " The marriage of true minds " s a unity 
 
 Begun on earth, lives through eternity 
 
 95 
 
With its supernal Source, whose law divine 
 
 Throughout all nature seeks the perfect whole 
 Bidding each atom with like atom join 
 
 Moving each soul to seek its kindred soul. 
 Mysterious agency! Through all creation 
 
 Unknown, unknowable yet every hour 
 Working in secret. Love, gravitation, 
 
 Whate er the name moves all things by its 
 power. 
 
 10 
 
 Naught is too small, from seeds it draws the 
 
 flower ; 
 Naught is too great oceans to ards orbs of 
 
 light; 
 Celestial spheres obey this wondrous power 
 
 Which lives and works beyond all mortal sight, 
 Though hand touch hand, and friendship warm 
 
 diffuse 
 
 Its genial glow, yea heart may heart accept 
 Yet each soul from all others still doth choose 
 With wisdom mute its fellowship elect. 
 
 ii 
 
 I ve done. Adieu my faithful friend most dear, 
 
 I know how true to memory thou lt remain 
 But when I pass from earth, drop thou no tear, 
 
 We only part a space to meet again. 
 In some fair region, freed from evil s thrall 
 
 A fuller life we ll win a life more blest 
 Joined in ecstatic union with the All-in-all 
 
 In the ineffable forever rest. 
 
Powell, Mar 
 
 y Elizabeth 
 
 P885 
 
 dy 
 
 The dying 
 
 musician 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 M191S61 
 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY