The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Volume I Part 31

You would not think that brow could e'er Ungentle moods express, Yet seemed it, in this troubled world, Too calm for gentleness, When the very star that s.h.i.+nes from far s.h.i.+nes trembling ne'ertheless.

VII.

It lacked, all need, the softening light Which other brows supply: We should conjoin the scathed trunks Of our humanity, That each leafless spray entwining may Look softer 'gainst the sky.

VIII.

None gazed within the poet's face, The poet gazed in none; He threw a lonely shadow straight Before the moon and sun, Affronting nature's heaven-dwelling creatures With wrong to nature done:

IX.

Because this poet daringly, --The nature at his heart, And that quick tune along his veins He could not change by art,-- Had vowed his blood of brotherhood To a stagnant place apart.

X.

He did not vow in fear, or wrath, Or grief's fantastic whim, But, weights and shows of sensual things Too closely crossing him, On his soul's eyelid the pressure slid And made its vision dim.

XI.

And darkening in the dark he strove 'Twixt earth and sea and sky To lose in shadow, wave and cloud, His brother's haunting cry: The winds were welcome as they swept, G.o.d's five-day work he would accept, But let the rest go by.

XII.

He cried, "O touching, patient Earth That weepest in thy glee, Whom G.o.d created very good, And very mournful, we!

Thy voice of moan doth reach His throne, As Abel's rose from thee.

XIII.

"Poor crystal sky with stars astray!

Mad winds that howling go From east to west! perplexed seas That stagger from their blow!

O motion wild! O wave defiled!

Our curse hath made you so.

XIV.

'_We!_ and _our_ curse! do _I_ partake The desiccating sin?

Have _I_ the apple at my lips?

The money-l.u.s.t within?

Do _I_ human stand with the wounding hand, To the blasting heart akin?

XV.

"Thou solemn pathos of all things For solemn joy designed!

Behold, submissive to your cause, A holy wrath I find And, for your sake, the bondage break That knits me to my kind.

XVI.

"Hear me forswear man's sympathies, His pleasant yea and no, His riot on the piteous earth Whereon his thistles grow, His changing love--with stars above, His pride--with graves below.

XVII.

"Hear me forswear his roof by night, His bread and salt by day, His talkings at the wood-fire hearth, His greetings by the way, His answering looks, his systemed books, All man, for aye and aye.

XVIII.

"That so my purged, once human heart, From all the human rent, May gather strength to pledge and drink Your wine of wonderment, While you pardon me all blessingly The woe mine Adam sent.

XIX.

"And I shall feel your unseen looks Innumerous, constant, deep And soft as haunted Adam once, Though sadder, round me creep,-- As slumbering men have mystic ken Of watchers on their sleep.

XX.

"And ever, when I lift my brow At evening to the sun, No voice of woman or of child Recording 'Day is done.'

Your silences shall a love express, More deep than such an one."

PART THE SECOND.

SHOWING TO WHOM THE VOW WAS DECLARED.

I.

The poet's vow was inly sworn, The poet's vow was told.

He shared among his crowding friends The silver and the gold, They clasping bland his gift,--his hand In a somewhat slacker hold.

II.

They wended forth, the crowding friends, With farewells smooth and kind.

They wended forth, the solaced friends, And left but twain behind: One loved him true as brothers do, And one was Rosalind.