Poems Part 14

WALTER.

I yearned for love, As earnestly as sun-cracked summer earth Yearns to the heavens for rain--none ever came.

VIOLET.

Oh, say not so! I love thee very much; Let me but grow up like a sweet-breathed flower Within this ghastly fissure of thy heart!

Do you not love me, Walter?

WALTER.

By thy tears I love thee as my own immortal soul.

Weep, weep, my Beautiful! Upon thy face There is no cloud of sorrow or distress.

It is as moonlight, pale, serene, and clear.

Thy tears are spilt of joy, they fall like rain From heaven's stainless blue.

Bend over me, my Beautiful, my Own.

Oh, I could lie with face upturned for ever, And on thy beauty feed as on a star!

[_Another pause._ Thy face doth come between me and the heaven-- Start not, my dearest! for I would not give Thee in thy tears for all yon sky lit up For a G.o.d's feast to-night. And I am loved!

Why did you love me, Violet?

VIOLET.

The sun Smiles on the earth, and the exuberant earth Returns the smile in flowers--'twas so with me.

I love thee as a fountain leaps to light-- I can do nothing else.

WALTER.

Say these words again, And yet again; never fell on my ear Such drops of music.

VIOLET.

Alas! poor words are weak, So are the daily ills of common life, To draw the ingots and the h.o.a.rded pearls From out the treasure-caverns of my heart.

Suffering, despair, and death alone can do it: Poor Walter! [_Kisses him._

WALTER.

G.o.ds! I could out-Anthony Anthony! This moment I could scatter Kingdoms life halfpence. I am drunk with joy.

This is a royal hour--the top of life.

Henceforth my path slopes downward to the grave-- All's dross but love. That largest Son of Time, Who wandered singing through the listening world, Will be as much forgot as the canoe That crossed the bosom of a lonely lake A thousand years ago. My Beautiful!

I would not give thy cheek for all his songs-- Thy kiss for all his fame. Why do you weep?

VIOLET.

To think that we, so happy now, must die.

WALTER.

That thought hangs like a cold and slimy snail On the rich rose of love--shake it away-- Give me another kiss, and I will take Death at a flying leap. The night is fair, But thou art fairer, Violet! Unloose The midnight of thy tresses, let them float Around us both. How the freed ringlets reel Down to the dewy gra.s.s! Here lean thy head, Now you will feel my heart leap 'gainst thy cheek; Imprison me with those white arms of thine.

So, so. O sweet upturned face! (_Kisses her._) If G.o.d Told you to-night He'd grant your dearest wish, What would it be?

VIOLET.

That He would let you grow To your ambition's height. What would be yours?

WALTER.

A greater boon than Satan's forfeit throne!

That He would keep us beautiful and young For ever, as to-night. Oh, I could live Unwearied on thy beauty, till the sun Grows dim and wrinkled as an old man's face.

Our cheeks are close, our breaths mix like our souls.

We have been starved hereto; Love's banquet's spread, Now let us feast our fills.

VIOLET.

Walter!

SCENE X.

_A Bridge in a City_--_Midnight_--WALTER _alone._

WALTER.

Adam lost Paradise--eternal tale Repeated in the lives of all his sons.

I had a s.h.i.+ning orb of happiness, G.o.d gave it me; but sin pa.s.sed over it As small-pox pa.s.ses o'er a lovely face, Leaving it hideous. I have lost for ever The Paradise of young and happy thoughts, And now stand in the middle of my life Looking back through my tears--ne'er to return.

I've a stern tryst with Death, and must go on, Though with slow steps and oft-reverted eyes.

'Tis a thick, rich-hazed, sumptuous autumn night; The moon grows like a white flower in the sky; The stars are dim. The tired year rests content Among her sheaves, as a fond mother rests Among her children; all her work is done.

There is a weight of peace upon the world; It sleeps: G.o.d's blessing on it. Not on _me_!

Oh, as a lewd dream stains the holy sleep, I stain the holy night, yet dare not die!

I knew this river's childhood, from the lake That gave it birth, till, as if spilt from heaven, It floated o'er the face of jet-black rocks, Graceful and gauzy as a snowy veil.

Then we were pure as the blue sky above us, Now we are black alike. This stream has turned The wheels of commerce, and come forth distained; And now trails slowly through a city's heart, Drawing its filth as doth an evil soul Attract all evil things; putrid and black It mingles with the clear and stainless sea.

So into pure eternity my soul Will disembogue itself.

Good men have said That sometimes G.o.d leaves sinners to their sin,-- He has left me to mine, and I am changed; My worst part is insurgent, and my will Is weak and powerless as a trembling king When millions rise up hungry. Woe is me!

My soul breeds sins as a dead body worms!

They swarm and feed upon me. Hear me, G.o.d!

Sin met me and embraced me on my way; Methought her cheeks were red, her lips had bloom; I kissed her bold lips, dallied with her hair: She sang me into slumber. I awoke-- It was a putrid corse that clung to me, That _clings_ to me like memory to the d.a.m.ned, That rots into my being. Father! G.o.d!

I cannot shake it off, it clings, it clings;-- I soon will grow as corrupt as itself. [_A pause._ G.o.d sends me back my prayers, as a father Returns unoped the letters of a son Who has dishonoured him.

Have mercy, Fiend!

Thou Devil, thou wilt drag me down to h.e.l.l.

Oh, if she had proclivity to sin Who did appear so beauteous and so pure, Nature may leer behind a gracious mask.

And G.o.d himself may be----I'm giddy, blind, The world reels from beneath me.

[_Catches hold of the parapet._ (_An outcast approaches._) Wilt pray for me?

GIRL (_shuddering_).

'Tis a dreadful thing to pray.

WALTER.

Why is it so?