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ALICE The roses of the world are sad, The water-lilies pale, Because my lover takes her lad Beneath the moonlight veil. No flower may bloom this happy hour— Unless my Alice be the flower. The stars are hidden in dark and mist, The moon and sun are dead, Because my love has caught and kissed My body in her bed. No light may shine this happy night— Unless my Alice be the light. 45
…rk ! The nightingale’s at rest, Because my love loves the dark, And has me in her breast. No song this happy night be heard !— Unless my Alice be the bird. The sea that roared around the house Is fallen from alarms, Because my lover calls me spouse, And takes me to her arms. This night no sound of breakers be !— Unless my Alice be the sea. Of man and maid in all the world Is stilled the swift caress, Because my lover has me curled In her own loveliness. No kiss be such a night as this !— Unless by Alice be the kiss. 46
… dew fresh-fallen above, Because my lover swoons, and slakes Her body’s thirst of love. This night no dewfall from the blue !— Unless my Alice be the dew. This night—O never dawn shall crest The world of wakening, Because my lover has my breast On hers for dawn and spring. This night shall never be withdrawn— Unless my Alice be the dawn. 47
ALICE : AN ADULTERY
ALICE : AN ADULTERY
ALICE : AN ADULTERY Privately Printed 1903
… she sighed Uttermost life’s love, and became a bride. Beneath the sonnet, in pencil, and feebler hand, are scrawled faintly the words : Alice ! Alice ! 68
RED POPPY I have no heart to sing. What offering may I bring, Alice, to thee ? My great love’s lifted wing Weakens, unwearying, And droops with me, Seeing the sun-kindled hair Close in the face more fair, The sweet soul shining there For God to see. 35
ALICE : AN ADULTERY “ Commit not with man’s sworn spouse.” King Lear. Against the fiat of that God discrowned, Unseated by Man’s justice, and replaced, By Law most bountiful and maiden-faced And mother-minded : passing the low bound Of man’s poor law we leapt at last and found Passion ; and passing the dim halls disgraced Found higher love and larger and more chaste, A calm sphinx waiting in secluded ground. Hear the sad rhyme of how love turned to lust, And lust invigorated love, and love Shone brighter for the stain it rose above, Gathering r…
THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY “ I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill.” Richard II. Alice was desperately ill at morn. Hour by sweet hour I watched her sorrowing, While the strong fever fought unconquering With native coolness of her life, o’er-worn Or poisoned ; thus I fought the long forlorn Battle all day, until the evening Brought back sweet health on sleep and noiseless wing : Strong love of the long battle was reborn. The child slept elsewhere that she might sleep well. Therefore, not fearing anything, I came ; Lit my love’s candle at her bo…
A BRIEF CRITICAL ESSAY ON “ ALICE : AN ADULTERY.” Almost the first remark that we made on laying down the MS. submitted for our judgment was that it is always doubtful how far a man is justified in stripping bare his soul for the public benefit. “ Shall I sonnet-sing you about myself?” asks Browning ; “ unlock my heart with a sonnet- key ?” And his answer is :— “ With this same key Shakespeare unlocked his heart,” once more ! Did Shakespeare ? If so, the less shakespeare he !” Very well ; but Browning himself went even farther, and permitted th…
THE FORTY-FIRST DAY “ I am sick.” Antony and Cleopatra. How things are changed since Alice was so ill ! I, being in high fever, lay in bed, While my love smoothed the pillows for my head : Her calm looks christened me with dew to still All chance of fever to the soul, and fill My heart with pure love like a snowfall shed Meekly, a blossom where frail white and red Were never frenzied at some mad god’s will. She sat and gazed upon me all day long. Sometimes she held my hands ; then she would weep, And then stoop tenderly and kiss my lips, Or lul…
…ld evidently write and obtain money from home (47th day), and his actions are quite difficult to understand unless we assume the whole “ Alice ” episode to be a gor- geous fiction with the place and time references slyly inserted, the more surely to ensnare the feet of an investigator. This I am rather inclined to xvii
…, not verbose. More I demand not, seeing it is written (almost literally so) in blood ; for I am sure that he was dying of that love for Alice, whose marvellous beauty it was his mission (who may doubt it ?) to reveal. For the burning torch of truth may smoke, but it is our one sure light in passion and distress. The jewelled silence of the star is, indeed, the light of a serener art ; but love is human, and I give nothing for the tawdry gems of style when the breast they would adorn is that of a breathing, living beauty of man’s love, the hear…
… Evolution (4th day), and yet also in existence of Gods.* 8th day.—He calls his island “ the extreme west of all the world.” 16th day.—“ Alice ” had a husband living (where is mentioned in 48th day, but not printed now) and a boy was travelling with her. 22nd day.—There is a talk of going to Japan. *I have asked Sri Abhavananda, the eminent European Buddhist, and he is quite clear that the author has practi- cally no knowledge of true Buddhism, and less than no claim to describe himself as an adherent. See Day the 38th. xvi
…t last, and he died of the love he had invoked in play. It is the old-story of the magician strangled by the devil. As to what became of Alice we have no idea, if, indeed, she be after all a real person. In my judgment our poet was perfectly capable of deify- ing an old woman of fifty with a false front and *The results of a lengthy correspondence with some who knew our author, go far to confirm this theory. Yet I believe (for it is so like his peculiar sense of humour) that there is enough genuine detail somewhere in the poem to enable the wro…