EPILOGUE
For fear of such a God! O blind! O
fool!
To heed these strangers, and to be the tool
Of their smooth Hes and monstrous miracles!
O break this bondage and cast off their
spells !
Five righteous! Thou a righteous man! A
jest !
A righteous man-—you always loved me best,
And even when lured by lips of wanton girls
Would turn away and sigh and touch my
curls
And slip half-conscious to the old em-
brace:
And now you will not let me see your face
Or hear your voice or touch you. Ah! the
hour!
Fle moves. Come back, come back, my
life’s one flower !
Come back. One kiss before you leave
me. So!
Stop—turn—one little kiss before you go ;
It is my right—you must. Ohno! Ohno!
EPILOGUE.
To die amid the blossoms of the frost
On far fair heights; to sleep the quiet
sleep
Of dead men underneath the snowy steep
Of many mountains ; ever to have lost
These cares and these distrusts 3 to lie alone,
Watched by the distant eagle’s drowsy
wing,
Stars and grey summits, and the winds
that sing
Slow dirges in eternal monotone.
Such is my soul’s desire, being weary of
This vain eternity of sleepless dreams
That is my life; withal there still may be
In other worlds, the hope of other love
Than this that floods my veins with
poisonous streams,
And wastes with wan desire
of me.
the soul