LIV. “And I went mourning, 'No fair Hebrew boy Shall smile away my maiden blame among The Hebrew mothers,'---emptied of all joy, Leaving the dance and song. LV. Leaving the olive-gardens far below, Leaving the promise of my bridal bower, The valleys of grape-loaded vines that glow Beneath the battled tower. LVI. - The light white cloud swam over us. Anon We heard the lion roaring from his den; We saw the large white stars rise one by one, Or, from the darkened glen, LVII. • Saw God divide the night with flying flame, And thunder on the everlasting hills. A solemn scorn of ills. LVIII. " When the next moon was rolled into the sky, Strength came to me that equalled my desire. How beautiful a thing it was to die For God and for my sire ! LIX. " It comforts me in this one thought to dwell, That I subdued me to my father's will; Because the kiss he gave me, ere I fell, Sweetens the spirit still. LX. “ Moreover, it is written that my race Hewed Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer On Arnon unto Minneth.” Here her face Glowed, as I looked at her. LXI. 66 She locked her lips: she left me where I stood: Glory to God,” she sang, and past afar, Thridding the sombre boskage of the wood, Toward the morning-star. LXII. Losing her carol I stood pensively, As one that from a casement leans his head, When midnight bells cease ringing suddenly, And the old year is dead. LXIII. 56 Alas! alas !” a low voice, full of care, Murmured beside me; “ Turn and look on me: I am that Rosamond, whom men call fair, If what I was I be. LXIV. 56 Would I had been some maiden coarse and poor! O me! that I should ever see the light ! Those dragon eyes of angered Eleanor Do hunt me, day and night.” LXV. She ceased in tears, fallen from hope and trust : To whom the Egyptian: “O, you tamely died ! You should have clung to Fulvia's waist, and thrust The dagger through her side.” LXVI. With that sharp sound the white dawn's creeping beams, Stolen to my brain, dissolved the mystery Of folded sleep. The captain of my dreams Ruled in the eastern sky. LXVII. Morn broadened on the borders of the dark, Ere I saw her who clasped in her last trance Her murdered father's head, or Joan of Arc, A light of ancient France; LXVIII. Or her, who knew that Love can vanquish Death, Who kneeling, with one arm about her king, Drew forth the poison with her balmy breath, Sweet as new buds in Spring. LXIX. No memory labors longer from the deep Gold-mines of thought to lift the hidden ore That glimpses, moving up, than I from sleep To gather and tell o’er LXX. Each little sound and sight. With what dull pain Compassed, how eagerly I sought to strike Into that wondrous track of dreams again! But no two dreams are like. LXXI. As when a soul laments, which hath been blest, Desiring what is mingled with past years, In yearnings that can never be exprest By signs or groans or tears; LXXII. Because all words, though culled with choicest art, Failing to give the bitter of the sweet, Wither beneath the palate, and the heart Faints, faded by its heat. MARGARET. O sweet pale Margaret, Of pensive thought and aspect pale, Your melancholy, sweet and frail As perfume of the cuckoo-flower ? From the westward-winding flood, From the evening-lighted wood, From all things outward you have won A tearful grace, as though you stood Between the rainbow and the sun. The very smile before you speak, Encircles all the heart, and feedeth Of dainty sorrow without sound, Like the tender amber round, Which the moon about her spreadeth, Moving through a fleecy night. You love, remaining peacefully, To hear the murmur of the strife, But enter not the toil of life. Your spirit is the calmed sea, Laid by the tumult of the fight. You are the evening star, alway Remaining betwixt dark and bright: Lulled echoes of laborious day Come to you, gleams of mellow light What can it matter, Margaret, What songs below the waning stars The lion-heart, Plantagenet, Sang looking through his prison bars ? Exquisite Margaret, who can tell Just ere the falling axe did part Even in her sight he loved so well ? A fairy shield your Genius made And gave you on your natal day. Your sorrow, only sorrow's shade, Keeps real sorrow far away. You are not less divine, twin-sister, Adeline. Your hair is darker, and your eyes Touched with a somewhat darker hue, But ever trembling through the dew O sweet pale Margaret, Come down, come down, and hear me speak Tie up the ringlets on your cheek: And faint, rainy lights are seen, Moving in the leavy beech. Rise from the feast of sorrow, lady, Where all day long you sit between Joy and woe, and whisper each. Look out below your bower-eaves, Upon me through the jasmine-leaves. |