THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.

(Extracted from a Fragmentary Poem, entitled, The Everlasting Gospel.')

THE vision of Christ that thou dost see

Is my vision's greatest enemy.

Thine is the fare of all mankind,

Mine speaks in parables to the blind;

Thine loves the same world that mine hates;

Thy Heaven-doors are my Hell-gates.

Socrates taught what Meletus

Loathed as a nation's bitterest curse,

And Caiaphas was in his own mind
A benefactor to mankind.

Both read the Bible day and night;

But thou read'st black where I read white.

They brought the trembling woman there;
Moses commands she be stoned to death;
What was the sound of Jesus' breath?
He laid his hand on Moses' law:
The ancient heavens in silent awe,
Writ with curses from pole to pole,
All away began to roll.

The earth trembling and naked lay,
In secret bed of mortal clay,

Who shall accuse thee? Come ye forth,
Ye fallen fiends of heavenly birth!
Ye shall bow before her feet,

'Ye shall lick the dust for meat;

LOVE'S SECRET.

NEVER seek to tell thy love,
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind doth move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love, I told her all my heart, Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears. Ah! she did depart.

Soon after she was gone from me,

A traveller came by,

Silently, invisibly:

He took her with a sigh.

THE CRYSTAL CABINET.

THE maiden caught me in the wild,
Where I was dancing merrily;
She put me into her cabinet,

And locked me up with a golden key.

This cabinet is formed of gold,

And pearl and crystal shining bright, And within it opens into a world And a little lovely moony night.

Another England there I saw,

Another London with its tower,
Another Thames and other hills,
And another pleasant Surrey bower.

Another maiden like herself,

Translucent, lovely, shining clear, Threefold, each in the other closed, O what a pleasant trembling fear!

O what a smile! a threefold smile Filled me that like a flame I burned;

I bent to kiss the lovely maid,

And found a threefold kiss returned.

I strove to seize the inmost form

With ardour fierce and hands of flame,

But burst the crystal cabinet,

And like a weeping babe became.

A weeping babe upon the wild,

And weeping woman pale reclined,

And in the outward air again

I filled with woes the passing wind.