118 | MYSTERIES: VAUGHAN [astonished ]. They are not mine, child. I did not see them till you showed me. [Zaking papers.| Why, they are in your handwriting ; what are they? [Reading, gradually becomes aware that something strange has happened.) It is finished—it is finished ! [ Curtain.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 224

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

202 MYSTERIES: Fragrant blooms of fruitless kisses, Clear and sweet as the stars of night; In our Eden no serpent hisses; Time and the gods have lost their spite; Sleep descends with her tender might; Love goes down into sleep’s abysses, Lapped in its waves of moving light.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 154

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

132 MYSTERIES : Torn by the thunder and the bitter strife Of warring flames and tempest’s wrath, we came And fiung ourselves within, and laid us down At last to sleep; and Sleep, a veined shape Of naked stateliness, came down to us, And tenderly stooped down, and kissed our brows.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 220

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

198 MYSTERIES: Wake from the innocent dear sleep Of childhood’s life: An English maiden must not weep To be a wife. So shall our love bridge space, and bring The tender breath Of sun and moon and stars that sing To gladden Death. I see your cheek grow pale and cold, Then flush above. Kiss me; I know that I behold The birth of Love.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 236

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

a4 MYSTERIES: I have had hope in the spring— Trust that the God who has given Flowers, and the thrushes that sing Dawnwards all night, and at even Year after year, will be true now we are speaking of heaven. Breezes caress me and creep Over the world to admire it; Sweet air shall sigh me to sleep, Softly my lips shall respire it, Lying half-closed with a kiss ready for who shall desire it.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 146

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

124° MYSTERIES : Lifted, and in the shadow far behind Dim and divine, within the shadow blind. My own love’s face most amorously draw Out of the deep toward my cloudy mind. And suddenly I felt a kiss enclose My whole live body, as a rich red rose Folding its sweetness round the honey-bee. I felt a perfect soul embracing me, And in my spirit like a river flows A passion like the passion of the sea.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 182

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

160 ‘MYSTERIES: Only a primrose, a violet laden With the pale perfume of dawn ; Only a snowdrop, my delicate maiden ; These have no thorn. Old-fashioned love, yet you feel it a fountain Springing for ever, most pure; Old-fashioned love, yet as adamant mountain . Solid and sure. Yes, tender thoughts on your lips will be breaking By-and-by into a smile; Love, ere he springs up divine at his waking, Slumbers awhile. So, my kissed snowdrop, you took its white blossom Tenderly into your hand, Kissed it three times, wear it yet in your bosom— I under…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 194

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

172 MYSTERIES : THE MORNING OF DISILLUSION- MENT. HE Eve of Love has faded To this unhallowed morn ; Of which these laughters shaded With bitterness are born, With tears and cruel sighing ‘The day springs up undying Toward the crucifying Of Love with nails of scorn. Nailed to a cross of iron My bleeding bosom hangs ; Love’s serpents all environ My heart with tameless fangs. Unshaken, tortured, stricken By agonies that thicken I hang, and sweat, and sicken, With miserable pangs. I found out Love new-risen From seas I thought had slain His passio…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 180

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

158 - MYSTERIES: The constant ripple of your long white hands, The soul-tormenting violin that speaks Truth, and enunciates all my soul seeks, And binds my love in its desirous bands, And clutches at my heart, until there stands No fibre yet unshaken, while it wreaks In one sharp song the agony of weeks, And all my soul and body understands. The music changes, and I know that here, In these new melodies, a tongue of fire Leaps at each waving of the silver spear; And all my sorrow dons delight’s attire Because the gate of Heaven is so near, And …

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1899 · PDF PAGE 216

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

194 MYSTERIES: A VALENTINE, ’98. HE sea laughs jewels, on her breast The sunbeams bear Children most delicately drest, Gold flowers and fair. The blue sea sparkles in the noon, At dusk is free, - At midnight does the sacred moon Embrace the sea. And on the land the woods are green, A wild bird’s note Shrills till the air trembles between His beak and throat. And up through blue and gold and black The shivering sound Rushes ; no echo murmurs back From sky or ground. In the loud agony of song The moon is still ; , The wind drops down the shore al…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 208

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

186 MYSTERIES: PERDURABO. XILE from humankind! The snow’s fresh flakes Are warmer than men’s hearts. My mind is wrought Into dark shapes of solitary thought That loves and sympathizes, but awakes No answering love or pity. What a pang Hath this strange solitude to aggravate The self-abasement and the blows of Fate!’ No snake of hell hath so severe a fang! I am not lower than all men—I feel Too keenly. Yet my place is not above, Though I have this—unalterable Love In every fibre. I am crucified Apart on a lone burning crag of steel, Tortured, ca…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 106

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

84 MYSTERIES: A whole long life of love. Leap high, laugh low ! I love you—so !— One kiss—and then to freedom! See the bay So far away, But not too far for love! Ring out, sharp hoof, And put to proof The skill of him that steeled thee! Freedom! Set As never yet Thy straining sides for freedom! Gallant mare! The frosty air Kindles the blood within us as we race. O love! Thy face Flames with the passion of our happy speed! The noble steed Pashes the first gold limit of the sand. Ah love, thy hand! We win, no foot pursuing spans the brow! Yes, ki…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 218

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

MYSTERIES: The English lily is a bloom Too cold and sweet ; One might say—in the twilight gloom A maiden’s feet. Silent and slim and delicate The flower shall spring, Till there be born immaculate A fair new thing. Tall as the mother-lily, still By faint winds swayed ; Tender and pure, without a will— An English maid. No tree of poison, at whose feet All men lie dead ; No well of death, whose waters sweet Are tinged with red. No hideous impassioned queen For whom love dies ; No warm imperious Messaline That slew with sighs. Fiercer desires may …

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1899 · PDF PAGE 126

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

104 MYSTERIES : PERCY. I cannot think at home. VAUGHAN. Why think, if thinking makes you sad? | PERCY. That I may write. I have not long to live, and I must write, write always. FRIEND [aside to Vaughan). Ii me semble qu’il a faim. PERCY. I am hungry for a little love, a little pity. To-night you have shown me your soul, and I am not hungry any more. VAUGHAN. | But, boy, you are starving physically. Come home with me and have some dinner. Only my daughter will be there. PERCY, You are very kind. Thank you. FRIEND [aside]. He is a gentleman. VAU…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 128

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

106 MYSTERIES : VAUGHAN. Do you find beauty in her ? PERCY. No, but I see in her history a poem, to which I trust that God will write an end. VAUGHAN. What end can come but evil ? PERCY. O! if I had no hope for her I should have none for myself. VAUGHAN, How? Have you then fallen? PERCY. Oh, yes, I have fallen. I am older every hour. [ have wasted time, I have wasted love. VAUGHAN. Perhaps it is not all waste after all. There is a use for everything, nothing is destroyed—believe so, anyhow! — FRIEND. What about this dinner of yours, Vaughan? Es…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 168

Jephthah and Other Mysteries

146 MYSTERIES : A SONNET IN SPRING. CHAINLESS Love, the frost is in my brain, Whose swift desires and swift intelligence Are dull and numb to-day ; because the sense Only responds to the sharp key of pain. O free fair Love, as welcome as the rain On thirsty fallows, come, and let us hence Far where the veil of Summer lies immense, A haze of heat on ocean’s purple plain. O wingless Love, let us away together Where the sure surf rings round the beaten strand, And the sky stands, a dome of flawless weather, And the stars join in one triumphal band…

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