The Ascent of Man Part 10

VII.

Why will you haunt me unawares, And walk into my sleep, Pacing its shadowy thoroughfares, Where long-dried perfume scents the airs, While ghosts of sorrow creep, Where on Hope's ruined altar-stairs, With ineffectual beams, The Moon of Memory coldly glares Upon the land of dreams?

My yearning eyes were fain to look Upon your hidden face; Their love, alas! you could not brook, But in your own you mutely took My hand, and for a s.p.a.ce You wrung it till I throbbed and shook, And woke with wildest moan And wet face channelled like a brook With your tears or my own.

VIII.

When you wake from troubled slumbers With a dream-bewildered brain, And old leaves which no man numbers Chattering tap against the pane; And the midnight wind is wailing Till your very life seems quailing As the long gusts shudder and sigh: Know you not that homeless cry Is my love's, which cannot die, Wailing through Eternity?

When beside the glowing embers, Sitting in the twilight lone, Drop on drop you hear November's Melancholy monotone, As the heavy rain comes sweeping, With a sound of weeping, weeping, Till your blood is chilled with fears; Know you not those falling tears, Flowing fast through years on years, For my sobs within your ears?

When with dolorous moan the billows Surge around where, far and wide, Leagues on leagues of sea-worn hollows Throb with thunders of the tide, And the weary waves in breaking Fill you, thrill you, as with aching Memories of our love of yore Where you pace the sounding sh.o.r.e, Hear you not, through roll and roar, Soul call soul for evermore?

IX.

In a lonesome burial-place Crouched a mourner white of face; Wild her eyes--unheeding Circling pomp of night and day-- Ever crying, "Well away, Love lies a-bleeding!"

And her sighs were like a knell, And her tears for ever fell, With their warm rain feeding That purpureal flower, alas!

Trailing prostrate in the gra.s.s, Love lies a-bleeding.

Through the yews' black-tufted gloom Crimson light dripped on the tomb, Funeral shadows breeding: In the sky the sun's light shed Dyed the earth one awful red-- Love lies a-bleeding.

Came grey mists, and blanching cloud Bore one universal shroud; Came the bowed moon leading, From the infinite afar Star that rumoured unto star-- Love lies a-bleeding.

X.

On life's long round by chance I found A dell impearled with dew, Where hyacinths, gushing from the ground, Lent to the earth heaven's native hue Of holy blue.

I sought that plot of azure light Once more in gloomy hours; But snow had fallen overnight And wrapped in mortuary white My fairy ring of flowers.

XI.

Ah, yesterday was dark and drear, My heart was deadly sore; Without thy love it seemed, my Dear, That I could live no more.

And yet I laugh and sing to-day; Care or care not for me, Thou canst not take the love away With which I worship thee.

And if to-morrow, Dear, I live, My heart I shall not break: For still I hold it that to give Is sweeter than to take.

XII.

Yea, the roses are still on fire With the bygone heat of July, Though the least little wind drifting by Shake a rose-leaf or two from the brier, Be it never so soft a sigh.

Ember of love still glows and lingers Deep at the red heart's smouldering core; With the sudden pa.s.sionate throb of yore We shook as our eyes and clinging fingers Met once only to meet no more.

XIII.

We met as strangers on life's lonely way, And yet it seemed we knew each other well; There was no end to what thou hadst to say, Or to the thousand things I found to tell.

My heart, long silent, at thy voice that day Chimed in my breast like to a silver bell.

How much we spoke, and yet still left untold Some secret half revealed within our eyes: Didst thou not love me once in ages old?

Had I not called thee with importunate cries, And, like a child left sobbing in the cold, Listened to catch from far thy fond replies?

We met as strangers, and as such we part; Yet all my life seems leaving me with thine; Ah, to be clasped once only heart to heart, If only once to feel that thou wert mine!

These lips are locked, and yet I know thou art That all in all for which my soul did pine.

XIV.

You make the sunshine of my heart And its tempestuous shower; Sometimes the thought of you is like A lilac bush in flower, Yea, honey-sweet as hives in May.

And then the pang of it will strike My bosom with a fiery smart, As though love's deeply planted dart Drained all its life away.

My thoughts hum round you, Dear, like bees About a bank of thyme, Or round the yellow blossoms of The heavy-scented lime.

Ah, sweeter you than honeydew, Yet dark the ways of love, For it has robbed my soul of peace, And marred my life and turned heart's-ease Into funereal rue.

XV.

Dear, when I look into your eyes My hurts are healed, my heart grows whole; The barren places in my soul, Like waste lands under April skies, Break into flower beneath your eyes.

Ah, life grows lovely where you are; Only to think of you gives light To my dark heart, within whose night Your image, though you bide afar, Glows like a lake-reflected star.

Dare I crave more than only this: A thrill of love, a transient smile To gladden all my world awhile?

No more, alas! Is mortal bliss Not transient as a lover's kiss?

XVI.

Ah, if you knew how soon and late My eyes long for a sight of you, Sometimes in pa.s.sing by my gate You'd linger until fall of dew, If you but knew!

Ah, if you knew how sick and sore My life flags for the want of you, Straightway you'd enter at the door And clasp my hand between your two, If you but knew!

Ah, if you knew how lost and lone I watch and weep and wait for you, You'd press my heart close to your own Till love had healed me through and through, If you but knew!

XVII.

Your looks have touched my soul with bright Ineffable emotion; As moonbeams on a stormy night Illume with transitory light A seagull on her lonely flight Across the lonely ocean.

Fluttering from out the gloom and roar, On fitful wing she flies, Moon-white above the moon-washed sh.o.r.e; Then, drowned in darkness as before, She's lost, as I when lit no more By your beloved eyes.

XVIII.

Oh, brown Eyes with long black lashes, Young brown Eyes, Depths of night from which there flashes Lightning as of summer skies, Beautiful brown Eyes!

In your veiled mysterious splendour Pa.s.sion lies Sleeping, but with sudden tender Dreams that fill with vague surmise Beautiful brown Eyes.

All my soul, with yearning shaken, Asks in sighs-- Who will see your heart awaken, Love's divine sunrise In those young brown Eyes?

XIX.

Once on a golden day, In the golden month of May, I gave my heart away-- Little birds were singing.