As woodbine's fragile hold, Or when I feel about my feet The berried briony fold." O muille round thy knees with fern, But tell me, did she read the name And sweetly murmur'd thine. "Then flush'd her cheek with rosy light, Like those blind motions of the Spring, The cushions of whose touch may press ❝I, rooted here among the groves, My vapid vegetable loves With anthers and with dust: "For ah! my friend, the days were brief Whereof the poets talk, When that, which breathes within the O flourish high, with leafy towers, O flourish, hidden deep in fern, A thousand thanks for what I learn ""Tis little more: the day was warm; "Her eyelids dropp'd their silken eaves. I breathed upon her eyes Thro' all the summer of my leaves A welcome mix'd with sighs. "I took the swarming sound of lifeThe music from the townThe murmurs of the drum and tife And lull'd them in my own. "Sometimes I let a sunbeam slip, To light her shaded eye; A second flutter'd round her lip Like a golden butterfly; "A third would glimmer on her neck To make the necklac shine; Another slid, a sunny fleck, From head to ankle fine. "Then close and dark my arms spread, And shadow'd all her restDropt dows upon her golden head, An acorn in her breast. "But in a pet she started up, And pluck'd it out, and drew As when I see the woodman lift "I shook him down because he was He lies beside thee on the grass, "O kiss him twice and thrice for me, That have no lips to his, For never yet was oak on lea Step deeper yet in herb and fern, This fruit of thine by Love is blest, Where fairer fruit of Love may rest I kiss it twice, I kiss it thrice, But thou, while kingdoms overset Thy leaf shall never fail, nor yet All throats that gurgle sweet! Balm-dews to bathe thy feet! The fat earth feed thy branchy root, The northern morning o'er thee shoot, Nor ever lightning char thy grain, Low thunders bring the mellow rain, And hear me swear a solemn oath, Will I to Olive plight my troth, And gain her for my bride. And when my marriage morn may fall, She, Dryad-like, shall wear Alternate leaf and acorn-ball In wreath about her hair. And I will work in prose and rhyme, In which the swarthy ringdove sat, Wherein the younger Charles abode LOVE AND DUTY. Of love that never found his earthly close, What sequel? Streaming eyes and breaking hearts? Or all the same as if he had not been? Not so. Shall Error in the round of time Still father Truth? O shall the braggart shout For some blind glimpse of freedom work itself Thro' madness, hated by the wise, to law System and empire ? Sin itself be found The cloudy porch oft opening on the Sun? And only he, this wonder, dead, be come Mere highway dust? or year by year alone Art more thro' Love, and greater than thy years. The Sun wiil run his orbit, and the Moon Her circle. Wait, and Love himself will bring The drooping flower of knowledge changed to fruit Of wisdom. Wait: my faith is large in Time, And that which shapes it to some perfect end. Will some one say, Then why not ill for good? Why took ye not your pastime? To that man My work shall answer, since I knew the right And did it for a man is not as God, But then most Godlike being most a man. -So let me think 'tis well for theo and me Ill-fated that I am, what lot is mine Whose foresight preaches peace, my heart so slow To feel it! For how hard it seem'd to me, When eyes, love-languid thro' halftears, would dwell One earnest, earnest moment upon mine, Then not to dare to see! when thy low voice, Faltering, would break its syllables, to keep My own full-tuned,- hold passion in a leash. And not leap forth and fall about thy neck. And on thy bosom, (deep-desired relief!) Rain out the heavy mist of tears, that weigh'd Upon my brain, my senses and my soul! For love himself took part against himself To warn us off, and Duty loved of Love O this world's curse, beloved but hated-came Like Death betwixt thy dear embrace and mine, And crying, "Who is this? behold thy bride," As flow but once a life. The trance gave way To those caresses, when a hundred times In that last kiss, which never was the last, Farewell, like endless welcome, lived and died. Then follow'd counsel, comfort, and the words That make a man feel strong in speaking truth; Till now the dark was worn, and overhead The lights of sunset and of sunrise mix'd In that brief night; the summer night, that paused Among her stars to hear us; stars that hung Love-charm'd to listen: all the wheels of Time Spun round in station, but the end had come. O then like those, who clench their nerves to rush Upon their dissolution, we two rose, There closing like an individual life In one wild cry of passion and of pain, Like bitter accusation ev'n to death, Caught up the whole of love and utter'd it, And bade adíeu for ever. Like truths of Science waiting to be caught Catch me who can, and make the catcher crown'd Are taken by the forelock. Let it be. But if you care indeed to listen, hear These measured words, my work of yestermorn. "We sleep and wake and sleep, but all things move; The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun; The dark Earth follows wheel'd in her ellipse ; |