The House of Life Part 4

Tell me, my heart;--what angel-greeted door Or threshold of wing-winnowed threshing-floor Hath guest fire-fledged as thine, whose lord is Love?

HOPE OVERTAKEN

I deemed thy garments, O my Hope, were grey, So far I viewed thee. Now the s.p.a.ce between Is pa.s.sed at length; and garmented in green Even as in days of yore thou stand'st to-day.

Ah G.o.d! and but for lingering dull dismay, On all that road our footsteps erst had been Even thus commingled, and our shadows seen Blent on the hedgerows and the water-way.

O Hope of mine whose eyes are living love, No eyes but hers,--O Love and Hope the same!-- Lean close to me, for now the sinking sun That warmed our feet scarce gilds our hair above.

O hers thy voice and very hers thy name!

Alas, cling round me, for the day is done!

LOVE AND HOPE

Bless love and hope. Full many a withered year Whirled past us, eddying to its chill doomsday; And clasped together where the blown leaves lay, We long have knelt and wept full many a tear.

Yet lo! one hour at last, the Spring's compeer, Flutes softly to us from some green byeway:*

Those years, those tears are dead, but only they:-- Bless love and hope, true soul; for we are here.

Cling heart to heart; nor of this hour demand Whether in very truth, when we are dead, Our hearts shall wake to know Love's golden head Sole sunshine of the imperishable land; Or but discern, through night's unfeatured scope, Scorn-fired at length the illusive eyes of Hope.

*[sic]

CLOUD AND WIND

Love, should I fear death most for you or me?

Yet if you die, can I not follow you, Forcing the straits of change? Alas! but who Shall wrest a bond from night's inveteracy, Ere yet my hazardous soul put forth, to be Her warrant against all her haste might rue?-- Ah! in your eyes so reached what dumb adieu, What unsunned gyres of waste eternity?

And if I die the first, shall death be then A lampless watchtower whence I see you weep?-- Or (woe is me!) a bed wherein my sleep Ne'er notes (as death's dear cup at last you drain), The hour when you too learn that all is vain And that Hope sows what Love shall never reap?

SECRET PARTING

Because our talk was of the cloud-control And moon-track of the journeying face of Fate, Her tremulous kisses faltered at love's gate And her eyes dreamed against a distant goal: But soon, remembering her how brief the whole Of joy, which its own hours annihilate, Her set gaze gathered, thirstier than of late, And as she kissed, her mouth became her soul.

Thence in what ways we wandered, and how strove To build with fire-tried vows the piteous home Which memory haunts and whither sleep may roam,-- They only know for whom the roof of Love Is the still-seated secret of the grove, Nor spire may rise nor bell be heard therefrom.

PARTED LOVE

What shall be said of this embattled day And armed occupation of this night By all thy foes beleaguered,--now when sight Nor sound denotes the loved one far away?

Of these thy vanquished hours what shalt thou say,-- As every sense to which she dealt delight Now labours lonely o'er the stark noon-height To reach the sunset's desolate disarray?

Stand still, fond fettered wretch! while Memory's art Parades the Past before thy face, and lures Thy spirit to her pa.s.sionate portraitures: Till the tempestuous tide-gates flung apart Flood with wild will the hollows of thy heart, And thy heart rends thee, and thy body endures.

BROKEN MUSIC

The mother will not turn, who thinks she hears Her nursling's speech first grow articulate; But breathless with averted eyes elate She sits, with open lips and open ears, That it may call her twice. 'Mid doubts and fears Thus oft my soul has hearkened; till the song, A central moan for days, at length found tongue, And the sweet music welled and the sweet tears.

But now, whatever while the soul is fain To list that wonted murmur, as it were The speech-bound sea-sh.e.l.l's low importunate strain,-- No breath of song, thy voice alone is there, O bitterly beloved! and all her gain Is but the pang of unpermitted prayer.

DEATH-IN-LOVE

There came an image in Life's retinue That had Love's wings and bore his gonfalon: Fair was the web, and n.o.bly wrought thereon, O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue!

Bewildering sounds, such as Spring wakens to, Shook in its folds; and through my heart its power Sped trackless as the immemorable hour When birth's dark portal groaned and all was new.

But a veiled woman followed, and she caught The banner round its staff, to furl and cling,-- Then plucked a feather from the bearer's wing, And held it to his lips that stirred it not, And said to me, 'Behold, there is no breath: I and this Love are one, and I am Death.'

WILLOWWOOD

I

I sat with Love upon a woodside well, Leaning across the water, I and he; Nor ever did he speak nor looked at me, But touched his lute wherein was audible The certain secret thing he had to tell: Only our mirrored eyes met silently In the low wave; and that sound came to be The pa.s.sionate voice I knew; and my tears fell.

And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers; And with his foot and with his wing-feathers He swept the spring that watered my heart's drouth.

Then the dark ripples spread to waving hair, And as I stooped, her own lips rising there Bubbled with br.i.m.m.i.n.g kisses at my mouth.

II

And now Love sang: but his was such a song, So meshed with half-remembrance hard to free, As souls disused in death's sterility May sing when the new birthday tarries long.

And I was made aware of a dumb throng That stood aloof, one form by every tree, All mournful forms, for each was I or she, The shades of those our days that had no tongue.

They looked on us, and knew us and were known; While fast together, alive from the abyss, Clung the soul-wrung implacable close kiss; And pity of self through all made broken moan Which said, 'For once, for once, for once alone!'

And still Love sang, and what he sang was this:--

III

'O ye, all ye that walk in Willow-wood, That walk with hollow faces burning white; What fathom-depth of soul-struck widowhood, What long, what longer hours, one lifelong night, Ere ye again, who so in vain have wooed Your last hope lost, who so in vain invite Your lips to that their unforgotten food, Ere ye, ere ye again shall see the light!

Alas! the bitter banks in Willowwood, With tear-spurge wan, with blood-wort burning red: Alas! if ever such a pillow could Steep deep the soul in sleep till she were dead,-- Better all life forget her than this thing, That Willowwood should hold her wandering!'

IV

So sang he: and as meeting rose and rose Together cling through the wind's wellaway Nor change at once, yet near the end of day The leaves drop loosened where the heart-stain glows,-- So when the song died did the kiss unclose; And her face fell back drowned, and was as grey As its grey eyes; and if it ever may Meet mine again I know not if Love knows.