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Page 1 of 41903 · PDF PAGE 115
…lie ; That as each hour widens the gulfs that sigh Between us ; the truth scores upon my brow Sigils of silence, burns in me the vow “ I love you, and shall love you till it die.’ Whether next year, as fondly we made oath Shall see us meet at least, whether as wife I shall at last gather the whole vow’s breath— Not heaven nor hell shall break our solemn troth. love you, and shall love you all my life. I love you, and shall love you after death. 95
1903 · PDF PAGE 69
LOVE AND FEAR The rose of the springtime that bended Its delicate head to the breeze Is crimson and stately and splendid Now summer is here and at ease ; Love risen as the sun hath transcended its passion and peace. In a garden of dark foliage that clusters Round your face as a rosebud withdrawn, New splendour springs carmine and lustres Your cheeks with the coming of dawn, Love’s light as an army that musters its plumes—and is gone. For fear as a fountain, that trembles With wind, is arisen, and hides The light of your love, and dissembles The…
1903 · PDF PAGE 41
…r-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 roses from the quickening dust ; And faith despoiled and desecrated trust Wore pearlier plumes of a diviner dove. 21
1903 · PDF PAGE 107
THE FORTY-FIFTH DAY “ Peace, fool ! I have not done.” Troilus and Cressida. Thou knowest, O love, how tired our bodies grow Forgotten in quick converse, love to love ; How the flame flickers of the ghost above, The spirit’s kiss ; the sleepless to-and-fro Movement of love’s desire too strong to know Or care for that it takes its substance of— As if life’s burden were not drear enough Or death’s deliverance not so far and slow. Our bodies almost perish, with one thought Crowned and completed, consecrate and shrined : A perfect temple of fine amb…
1903 · PDF PAGE 81
… come : in my despair I half believed her an enchantress fair Cruel as hell and dowered with subtle skill To strain my life out with her love, and kill My soul with misery : suddenly a rare Swift smile set shimmering all the ambient air, And then I knew she was my true love still. She would not come ? Why, were Hell’s portals fast Shut, as to Orpheus on Eurydice, Their brass would break before love’s gold and steel, The sharpness inlaid with sweet tracery Of talismans of virtue : she is leal To come and live and be my love at last. 61
1903 · PDF PAGE 79
…ating the earth, the sea, the witchery Of all the universe : my breast I bared And cursed God, hoping lightning ; and I dared Not ask my love “ In very truth—you die ?” I could not bear it longer ; then she spake : “ I lied indeed, love, for mine honour’s sake,” And I reproached her for her love’s distrust, Saying “ I would not so in any wise Have lowered love unto the level of lust But now—” I hid my thought in tears and sighs. 59
1903 · PDF PAGE 73
….” Passionate Pilgrim. She grew most fearful, starting at slight noise ; As knowing that the sting of shame was hers Worse than a guilty love administers, Since our pure shame unworthily destroys The love of all she had, her girls and boys, Her home, their lives : and yet my whisper stirs Into live flame her passion, and deters Her fear from spurning all the day’s due joys. She had not dared to speak one word, to tell How deep and pure a fountain sunward leapt In her life’s garden : but to-night she lay In my intense embraces : so the spell Mov…
1903 · PDF PAGE 45
THE FOURTH DAY “ Amen, if you love her ; for the lady is very well worthy.” Much Ado about Nothing. I took another way to shield my love. I turned my thoughts to the abyss of sky, Pierced the frail veil, and sought Eternity ; Where the Gods reign most passionless above All foolish loves of men, and weary of The slow procession of Earth’s mystery ; Where worlds, not men, are born and live and die, And aeons flit unnoticed as a dove. Thither I fled, busied myself with these ; When—lo ! I saw her shadow following ! In every cosmic season-tide of s…
1903 · PDF PAGE 86
…rd, or the storm and spark Of lightning lamp or shroud us in the dark, Careless if ever land again we find, Careless of all things (this love being blind), We put to sea. O gladly stand and mark The diamond headland fall behind our barque, Wrapped in shrine-shadow of love’s central mind ! We are alone to-day on the strange sea, Divider of the dawn’s divinity From sunset’s splendour : our eternal noon Of love recks little of eternity— And though the moon is dying, ourselves may swoon, One deathless shape of the large-breasted moon. 66
1903 · PDF PAGE 53
THE ELEVENTH DAY “What win I if I gain the thing I seek?” Rape of Lucrece. There is much sorcery in the word eleven. I took my lover’s image pale and clear, Fixed in my mind ; I saw her standing near, Wooed her, conjured her by the power of heaven, Of my own mind, the Genii of the Seven, To come and live with me and be my dear, To love me in the spirit without fear ;— Leaving the body’s love to follow at even. Seemeth it not absurd ? to use the thought, The utterly divine impersonal Mind of a man, the pure, the spiritual, To such a purpose rath…
1903 · PDF PAGE 102
…RST 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 lull me with so…
1903 · PDF PAGE 50
… Here in the extreme west of all the earth This Vestal sate ; and I from Cupid’s bow Loosed a fair shaft of verses shapen so As to fling love through the chaste girdle’s girth, And show my love how meek was my love’s birth, How innocent its being : thus arow Stood the mild lines, immaculate, to show My harmless passion and her own great worth. She could not be offended : and moreover— When at the nightfall I sought Heaven’s light, All my work grew unspotted, done aright ! The high Gods came above my head to hover, Because I worked with a divine…
1903 · PDF PAGE 83
Two faces and two bosoms, breathing slowly In tune and time with the sea’s hymn below, Breathing in peace of love, mighty and holy, Fearing to fuse, and longing—be it so ! And the world’s pulse stops, as God bends him lowly To hear and know. . . . . . . . For not the heights of heaven shall exalt her Whose heart is full of love’s dumb deity, Nor harp-strings lift me, nor the sound of psalter, Whose love is merged and molten into thee, Nor incense sweeter be by shrine or altar For you and me. . . . . . . . But like dove’s eyes where glamour lies…
1903 · PDF PAGE 39
She fades as starlight on the stream, As dewfall in the dell ; All life and love, one ravishing gleam Stolen from sleep’s crucible ; That kiss, that vision is a dream :— And I—most miserable ! Still Echo wails upon the steep, “ To love—and to forget ! ” Still sombre whispers from the deep Sob through Night’s golden net, And waft upon the wings of sleep The name of Margaret. 17
1903 · PDF PAGE 57
O fearful firstling dove ! My dawn and spring of love, Love’s light and lure ! Look (as I bend above) Through bright lids filled thereof Perfect and pure, Thy bloom of maidenhood. I could not : if I could, I would not : being good, Also endure ! Cruel, to tear or mar The chaliced nenuphar ; Cruel to press The rosebud ; cruel to scar Or stain the flower-star With mad caress. But crueller to destroy The leaping life and joy Born in a careless boy From lone distress. 37
1903 · PDF PAGE 82
…n flowers, the wind’s low minstrelsy ; For all the tropic greenery is haunted By you and me. . . . . . . . The tall palms bend and catch love’s tender ditty To learn a sweeter song to lure their mate. The soft wind sighs in amorous self-pity, Having no love wherein to laugh elate, And turns to the cold harbour and the city, Wailing its fate. . . . . . . . 62
1903 · PDF PAGE 58
…el than art thou The calm and chaste of brow, If thou dost this, Forget the feeble vow Ill sworn : all laws allow Pity, that is Kin unto love, and mild. List to the sad and wild Crying of the lonely child Who asks a kiss. One kiss, like snow, to slip, Cool fragrance from thy lip To melt on mine ; One kiss, a white-sail ship To laugh and leap and dip Her brows divine ; One kiss, a starbeam faint With love of a sweet saint, Stolen like a sacrament In the night’s shrine ! 38
1903 · PDF PAGE 15
…e, direct, 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,…
1903 · PDF PAGE 97
LETHE. We have forgotten all the days of fear, The nights of torment when the kiss expired, Lost upon lips with love not overtired, But fearing many things—the after year, The end, the man—O no, not him ! the tear, The children’s sorrow, and our own shame fired Not less in doing all that love desired : We have forgotten, surely—being here ! We have forgotten every shape of sorrow, Knowing no end to one night’s ecstasy In the night’s kiss from morning that we borrow, From the hard usurer, Eternity— Seeing we have it in our power to die Before th…
1903 · PDF PAGE 46
…ven on brass with predestined pen. This is the doom. Upon the blind blue sky A little cloud, no larger than an hand ! Whether I live and love, or love and die, I care not : either way I understand. To me—to live is Christ ; to die is gain : For I, I also, I shall come again. 24