And if I die the first, shall death be then A lampless watchtower whence I see you weep?— Ne'er notes (as death's dear cup at last you drain, SONNET XLV. SECRET PARTING. BECAUSE Our talk was of the cloud-control Her set gaze gathered, thirstier than of late, Thence in what ways we wandered, and how strove roam, 'They only know for whom the roof of Love Is the still-seated secret of the grove, Nor spire may rise nor bell be heard therefrom. SONNET XLVI. PARTED LOVE. WHAT shall be said of this embattled day By all thy foes beleaguered,-now when sight Now labors lonely o'er the stark noon-height To reach the sunset's desolate disarray? Stand still, fond fettered wretch! while Memory's art SONNET XLVII. BROKEN MUSIC. THE mother will not turn, who thinks she hears She sits, with open lips and open ears, That it may call her twice. 'Mid doubts and fears But now, whatever while the soul is fain To list that wonted murmur, as it were The speech-bound sea-shell's low importunate strain,No breath of song, thy voice alone is there, O bitterly beloved! and all her gain Is but the pang of unpermitted prayer. SONNET XLVIII. DEATH-IN-LOVE. THERE came an image in Life's retinue O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue! Shook in its folds; and through my heart its power When birth's dark portal groaned and all was new. But a veiled woman followed, and she caught And said to me, “Behold, there is no breath : SONNETS XLIX., L., LI., LII. WILLOWWOOD. I. I SAT with Love upon a woodside well, Only our mirrored eyes met silently In the low wave; and that sound came to be The passionate voice I knew; and my tears fell. And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers; He swept the spring that watered my heart's drouth. II. AND now Love sang: but his was such a song, May sing when the new birthday tarries long. That stood aloof, one form by every tree, They looked on us, and knew us and were known; While fast together, alive from the abyss, Clung the soul-wrung implacable close kiss; And pity of self through all made broken moan Which said, " For once, for once, for once alone!" And still Love sang, and what he sang was this : III. "O YE, all ye that walk in Willowwood, That walk with hollow faces burning white; What fathom-depth of soul-struck widowhood, What long, what longer hours, one lifelong night, Ere ye again, who so in vain have wooed Your last hope lost, who so in vain invite Your lips to that their unforgotten food, Ere ye, ere ye again shall see the light. Alas! the bitter banks in Willowwood, With tear-spurge wan, with blood-wort burning red: Alas! if ever such a pillow could Steep deep the soul in sleep till she were dead,— Better all life forget her than this thing, That Willowwood should hold her wandering!" IV. So sang he and as meeting rose and rose So when the song died did the kiss unclose; And her face fell back drowned, and was as gray As its gray eyes; and if it ever may Meet mine again I know not if Love knows. Only I know that I leaned low and drank SONNET LIII. WITHOUT HER. WHAT of her glass without her? The blank gray Usurped by desolate night. Her pillowed place Without her? Tears, ah me! for love's good grace, And cold forgetfulness of night or day. What of the heart without her? Nay, poor heart, Steep ways and weary, without her thou art, SONNET LIV. LOVE'S FATALITY. SWEET Love, but oh! most dread Desire of Love I' the other's gaze, even as in his whose wand Also his lips, two writhen flakes of flame, Made moan: "Alas O Love, thus leashed with me! Wing-footed thou, wing-shouldered, once born free : And I, thy cowering self, in chains grown tame, Bound to thy body and soul, named with thy name,Life's iron heart, even Love's Fatality." |