LIFE AND LOVE. I. FAST this Life of mine was dying, II. Love came by, and having known her Gently stooped, and laid upon her III. Drew his smile across her folded Eyelids, as the swallow dips; Breathed as finely as the cold did, Through the locking of her lips. IV. So, when Life looked upward, being Warmed and breathed on from above, What sight could she have for seeing, Evermore... but only LOVE? A DENIAL. I. WE have met late-it is too late to meet, O friend, not more than friend! Death's forecome shroud is tangled round my feet, And if I step or stir, I touch the end. In this last jeopardy Can I approach thee, I, who cannot move ? II. I love thee not, I dare not love thee! go In silence; drop my hand. If thou seek roses, seek them where they blow Can life and death agree, That thou shouldst stoop thy song to my complaint? I cannot love thee. If the word is faint, Look in my face and see. III. I might have loved thee in some former days. Oh, then, my spirits had leapt As now they sink, at hearing thy love-praise! Had this been asked of me, To love thee with my whole strong heart and head,— I should have said still . . . yes, 'Look in my face and see!' IV. but smiled and said, But now.. God sees me, God, who took my heart And drowned it in life's surge. In all your wide warm earth I have no part— Could Love's great harmony The saints keep step to when their bonds are loose, Not weigh me down? am I a wife to choose? Look in my face and see V. While I behold, as plain as one who dreams, Whose voice, as cadenced as a silver stream's, One younger, more thought-free And fair and gay, than I, thou must forget, With brighter eyes than these.. which are not wet.. Look in my face and see! VI. So farewell thou, whom I have known too late To let thee come so near. Be counted happy while men call thee great, Not I!-that cannot be. I am lost, I am changed,-I must go farther, where The change shall take me worse, and no one dare Look in my face and see. Meantime I bless thee. VII. By these thoughts of mine I bless thee from all such! I bless thy lamp to oil, thy cup to wine, I love thee not, I love thee not!-away! 'Look in my face and see.' soul to say PROOF AND DISPROOF. I. Dost thou love me, my Belovëd ? Now I sit alone, alone And the hot tears break and burn. Now, Beloved, thou art gone, Doubt and terror have their turn. Is it love that I have known? |