Poems by Adam Lindsay Gordon Part 34

Henry: Nay, Thurston, not so; I decline to disturb Our lord for the present; go thou, or else curb Thy thirst, or drink water, as I do.

Thurston: Thou knave Of a page, dost thou wish me the colic to have?

Orion (aside): That clown is a thoroughbred Saxon. He thinks With pleasure on naught save hard blows and strong drinks; In h.e.l.l he will scarce go athirst if once given An inkling of any good liquors in heaven.

Hugo: Our Pontiff to manhood at Englemehr grew, The priests there are many, the nuns are but few.

I love not the Abbot--'tis needless to tell My reason; but all of the Abbess speak well.

Agatha: Through vineyards and cornfields beneath us, the Rhine Spreads and winds, silver-white, in the merry sunshine; And the air, overcharged with a subtle perfume, Grows faint from the essence of manifold bloom.

Hugo: And the tinkling of bells, and the bleating of sheep, And the chaunt from the fields, where the labourers reap The earlier harvest, comes faint on the breeze, That whispers so faintly in hedgerows and trees.

Orion: And a waggon wends slow to those turrets and spires, To feed the fat monks and the corpulent friars; It carries the corn, and the oil, and the wine, The honey and milk from the sh.o.r.es of the Rhine.

The oxen are weary and spent with their load, They pause, but the driver doth recklessly goad; Up yon steep, flinty rise they have staggered and reeled, Even devils may pity dumb beasts of the field.

Agatha (sings):

Oh! days and years departed, Vain hopes, vain fears that smarted, I turn to you sad-hearted-- I turn to you in tears!

Your daily sun shone brightly, Your happy dreams came nightly, Flowers bloomed and birds sang lightly, Through all your hopes and fears!

You halted not, nor tarried, Your hopes have all miscarried, And even your fears are buried, Since fear with hope must die.

You halted not, but hasted, And flew past, childhood wasted, And girlhood scarcely tasted, Now womanhood is nigh.

Yet I forgive your wronging, Dead seasons round me thronging, With yearning and with longing, I call your bitters sweet.

Vain longing, and vain yearning, There now is no returning; Oh! beating heart and burning, Forget to burn and beat!

Oh! childish suns and showers, Oh! girlish thorns and flowers, Oh! fruitless days and hours, Oh! groundless hopes and fears: The birds still chirp and twitter, And still the sunbeams glitter: Oh! barren years and bitter, Oh! bitter, barren years!

SCENE--The Summit of a Burning Mountain.

Night. A terrific storm. ORION (undisguised).

Orion (sings): From fathomless depths of abysses, Where fires unquenchable burst, From the blackness of darkness, where hisses The brood of the serpent accurs'd; From shrines where the hymns are the weeping And wailing and gnashing of teeth, Where the palm is the pang never sleeping, Where the worm never dying is the wreath; Where all fruits save wickedness wither, Whence naught save despair can be gleaned-- Come hither! come hither! come hither!

Fall'n angel, fell sprite, and foul fiend.

Come hither! the bands are all broken, And loosed in h.e.l.l's innermost womb, When the spell unp.r.o.nounceable spoken Divides the unspeakable gloom.

Evil Spirits approach. The storm increases.

Evil Spirits (singing): We hear thee, we seek thee, on pinions That darken the shades of the shade; Oh! Prince of the Air, with dominions Encompa.s.s'd, with powers array'd, With majesty cloth'd as a garment, Begirt with a shadowy shine, Whose feet scorch the hill-tops that are meant As footstools for thee and for thine.

Orion (sings): How it swells through each pause of the thunder, And mounts through each lull of the gust, Through the crashing of crags torn asunder, And the hurtling of trees in the dust; With a chorus of loud lamentations, With its dreary and hopeless refrain!

'Tis the cry of all tongues and all nations, That suffer and shudder in vain.

Evil Spirits (singing): 'Tis the cry of all tongues and all nations; Our song shall chime in with their strain; Lost spirits blend their wild exultations With the sighing of mortals in pain.

Orion (sings): With just light enough to see sorrows In this world, and terrors beyond, 'Twixt the day's bitter pangs and the morrow's Dread doubts, to despair and despond, Man lingers through toils unavailing For blessings that baffle his grasp; To his cradle he comes with a wailing, He goes to his grave with a gasp.

Evil Spirits (singing): His birth is a weeping and wailing, His death is a groan and a gasp; O'er the seed of the woman prevailing, Thus triumphs the seed of the asp.

SCENE--Chamber of a Wayside Inn.

HUGO sitting alone. Evening.

Hugo: And now the parting is over, The parting should end the pain; And the restless heart may recover, And so may the troubled brain.

I am sitting within the chamber Whose windows look on the porch, Where the roses cl.u.s.ter and clamber; We halted here on our march With her to the convent going, And now I go back alone: Ye roses, budding and blowing, Ye heed not though she is flown.

I remember the girlish gesture, The sportive and childlike grace, With which she crumpled and pressed your Rose leaves to her rose-hued face.

Shall I think on her ways hereafter-- On those flashes of mirth and grief, On that April of tears and laughter, On our parting, bitterly brief?

I remember the bell at sunrise, That sounded so solemnly, Bidding monk, and prelate, and nun rise; I rose ere the sun was high.

Down the long, dark, dismal pa.s.sage, To the door of her resting-place I went, on a farewell message, I trod with a stealthy pace.

There was no one there to see us When she opened her chamber door.

"Miserere, mei Deus", Rang faint from the convent choir.

I remember the dark and narrow And scantily-furnished room; And the gleam, like a golden arrow-- The gleam that lighted the gloom.

One couch, one seat, and one table, One window, and only one-- It stands in the eastern gable, It faces the rising sun; One ray shot through it, and one light On doorway and threshold played.

She stood within in the sunlight, I stood without in the shade.

I remember that bright form under The sheen of that slanting ray.

I spoke--"For life we must sunder, Let us sunder without delay.

Let us sever without preamble, As brother and sister part, For the sake of one pleasant ramble, That will live in at least one heart."

Still the choir in my ears rang faintly, In the distance dying away, Sweetly and sadly and saintly, Through arch and corridor grey!

And thus we parted for ever, Between the shade and the shine; Not as brother and sister sever-- I fondled her hands in mine.

Still the choir in my ears rang deaden'd And dull'd, though audible yet; And she redden'd, and paled, and redden'd-- Her lashes and lids grew wet.

Not as brother severs from sister, My lips clung fast to her lips; She shivered and shrank when I kissed her.

On the sunbeam drooped the eclipse.

I remember little of the parting With the Abbot, down by the gate, My men were eager for starting; I think he pressed me to wait.

From the lands where convent and glebe lie, From manors, and Church's right, Where I fought temptation so feebly, I, too, felt eager for flight.

Alas! the parting is over-- The parting, but not the pain-- Oh! sweet was the purple clover, And sweet was the yellow grain; And sweet were the woody hollows On the summery Rhineward track; But a winter untimely swallows All sweets as I travel back.

Yet I feel a.s.sured, in some fashion, Ere the hedges are crisp with rime, I shall conquer this senseless pa.s.sion, 'Twill yield to toil and to time.

I will fetter these fancies roaming; Already the sun has dipped; I will trim the lamps in the gloaming, I will finish my ma.n.u.script.

Through the night.w.a.tch unflagging study Shall banish regrets perforce; As soon as the east is ruddy Our bugle shall sound "To Horse!"

SCENE--Another Wayside House, Near the Norman Frontier.

HUGO and ORION in a chamber. Evening.