60
ROSA MUNDI, AND OTHER LOVE-SONGS
Inscrutable darkness through the storm
Loomed out, with broidered features of gold:
its form
Wing-like lay on the firmaments,
River-like curves in all its movements
Swift from inertia of vast voids rolled, stirred
Gigantic for roar of strepitation : whirred
The essential All
That was Her veil: her voice I had heard
Had not large sobbing fears surged; will
and word
Fall
Down from the black pearls of the night,
down, back
To night’s impearléd black ;
Down, from chryselephantine wall
And rose-revolving ball,
Doomed, fierce through Saturn’s aeons to
tear,
Fraught with the glory of a dead despair.
VIII.
FLAVIA.
I KISSED the face of Flavia fair,
In the deep wet dews of dawn,
And the ruddy weight of my lover’s hair
Fell over me and held me there
On the broad Italian lawn.
And the bright Italian moon arose
And cleft the cypress grove ;
For sadness in all beauty grows,
And sorrow from its master knows
How to appear like love.
Alas ! that Flavia’s gentle kiss,
And Flavia’s cool caress,
And Flavia’s flower of utter bliss
Must fade, must cease, must fall and miss
The height of happiness.
The moon must set, the sun must rise,
The wind of dawn is chill.
Oh, in this world of miseries
Is one hour’s pleasure ill to prize?
Is love the means of ill?
Oh, if there were a God to hear !
Or Christ had really given
His life! Or did a Dove appear
Bearing a rosebud, we might fear
Or hope for hell or heaven.
Alas! no sign is given. But short
Bliss of the earth is ours ;
The kiss that stops the avenging thought ;
The furtive passion shrewdly caught
Between the summer flowers.
So, Flavia, till the dawn awake
Cling close, cling close, as this is !
While moonlight lingers on the lake,
Our present happiness we’ll take
And fill the night with kisses !
IX.
KATIE CARR.
"Twas dark when church was out!
moon
Was low on Rossett Ghyll;?
The organ’s melancholy tune
Grew subtle, far, and still.
the
All drest in black, her white, white throat
Like moonlight gleamed ; she moved
Along the road, towards the farm,
Too happy to be loved.
‘‘O Katie Carr! how sweet you are!”
She only hurried faster:
She found an arm about her waist:
A maiden knows her master.
Through grass and heather we walked to-
gether ;
So hard her heart still beat
She thought she saw a ghost, and fast
Flickered the tiny feet.
‘“*O Katie Carr, there’s one stile more!
For your sweet love I’m dying.
There’s no one near ; there’s nought to fear.”
The lassie burst out crying.
1 A pass in Cumberland.