THE COMING IN OF THE SHIP.
THE COMING IN OF THE SHIP.
HE moon is bleached as white as wool,
And just dropping under;
Every star is gone but three,
I am not satisfied with sleep,
The night is not ended,
But look how the sea-ghost comes,
With wan skirts extended,
Stealing up in this weird hour,
Where light and dark are blended.
A vessel! To the old pier end
Her happy course she's keeping;
I heard them name her yesterday:
Some were pale with weeping;
Some with their heart-hunger sighed
She's in- and they are sleeping.
O! now with fancied greetings blest,
They comfort their long aching:
The sea of sleep hath borne to them
What would not come with waking,
And the dreams shall be most true
In their blissful breaking.
The stars are gone, the rose-bloom comes
No blush of maid is sweeter;
The red sun, half way out of bed,
Shall be the first to greet her.
None tell the news, yet sleepers wake,
And rise and run to meet her.
Their lost they have, they hold; from pain
A keener bliss they borrow,
How natural is joy, my heart!
How easy after sorrow!
For once, the best is come that hope
Promised them "to-morrow."
LOVE such a slender moon, going up and
Waxing so fast from night to night,
And swelling like an orange flower-bud.
TOOK a year out of my life and story
A dead year, and I said, "I will hew thee a tomb!"
I took the year out of my life and story,
The dead year, and said, "I have hewed thee a tomb!
'All the kings of the nations lie in glory;'
Cased in cedar and shut in a sacred gloom:
But for the sword, and the sceptre and diadem,
Sure thou didst reign like them.”
So I laid her with those tyrants old and hoary,
For I said, "The kings of the nations lie in glory, And so shalt thou!"
“Rock,” I said, "thy ribs are strong,
That I bring thee guard it long;
Hide the light from buried eyes
Hide it, lest the dead arise."
Year," I said, and turned away,
"I am free of thee this day:
All that we two only know,
I forgive, and I forego;
So thy face no more I meet,
In the field or in the street."
Thus we parted, she and I;
Life hid death, and put it by;
Life hid death, and said, "Be free!
I have no more need of thee."
No more need! O, mad mistake,
With repentance in its wake!
Ignorant, and rash, and blind;
Life had left the grave behind;
But had locked within its hold,
With the spices and the gold,
All she had to keep her warm
In the raging of the storm.
Scarce the sunset bloom was gone,
And the little stars outshone,
Ere the dead year, stiff and stark,
Drew me to her in the dark;
Death drew life to come to her,
Beating at her sepulchre,
Crying out, "How can I part
With the best share of my heart;
Lo, it lies upon the bier,
Captive, with the buried year.
O my heart!" And I fell prone
Weeping at the sealed stone;
"Year among the shades," I said,
"Since I live, and thou art dead,
Let my captive heart be free,
Like a bird to fly to me."
And I stayed some voice to win,
But none answered from within;
And I kissed the door - and night
Deepened till the stars waxed bright;
And I saw them set and wane,
And the world turn green again.
And I entered. On the bier
Quiet lay the buried
year;
I sat down where I could see
Life without, and sunshine free,
Death within. And I between,
Waited my own heart to wean
From the shroud that shaded her
In the rock-hewn sepulchre;
Waited till the dead should say,
"Heart be free of me this day"
Waited with a patient will
And I wait between them still.
I take the dead year back to my life and story,
The dead year, and say, "I will share in thy tomb.
'All the kings of the nations lie in glory;'
Cased in cedar, and shut in a sacred gloom;
They reigned in their lifetime with sceptre and diadem,
But thou excellest them;
For life doth make thy grave her oratory,
And the crown is still on thy brow: 'All the kings of the nations lie in glory,' And so dost thou."
"OLD man, upon the green hillside,
With yellow flowers besprinkled o'er,
How long in silence wilt thou bide
At this low stone door?
"I stoop: within 't is dark and still:
But shadowy paths methinks there be,
And lead they far into the hill?”
66 Traveller, come and see."
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