Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Well, this cold clay clod

Was man's heart.

Crumble it-and what comes next?

Is it God?

ROBERT BROWNING.

Mariana in the South.

WITH One black shadow at its feet,

The house through all the level shines, Close-latticed to the brooding heat, And silent in its dusty vines; A faint-blue ridge upon the right, An empty river-bed before, And shallows on a distant shore, In glaring sand and inlets bright.

But" Ave Mary," made she moan,

And "Ave Mary," night and morn; And "Ah," she sang, "to be all alone, To live forgotten, and love forlorn."

She, as her carol sadder grew,

From brow and bosom slowly down
Through rosy taper fingers drew

Her streaming curls of deepest brown
To left and right, and made appear,
Still lighted in a secret shrine,
Her melancholy eyes divine,
The home of woe without a tear.

And "Ave Mary," was her moan,
"Madonna, sad is night and morn;"
And "Ah," she sang, "to be all alone,
To live forgotten, and love forlorn."

Till all the crimson changed, and passed
Into deep orange o'er the sea,
Low on her knees herself she cast,

Before Our Lady murmured she;
Complaining, "Mother, give me grace
To help me of my weary load!"
And on the liquid mirror glowed
The clear perfection of her face.

66

Is this the form," she made her moan, "That won his praises night and morn?" And "Ah," she said, "but I wake alone, I sleep forgotten, I wake forlorn."

Nor bird would sing, nor lamb would bleat, Nor any cloud would cross the vault;

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

But sometimes in the falling day
An image seemed to pass the door,
To look into her eyes and say,
"But thou shalt be alone no more."
And flaming downward over all,
From heat to heat the day decreased,
And slowly rounded to the east
The one black shadow from the wall.

"The day to night," she made her moan,
"The day to night, the night to morn,
And day and night I am left alone,
To live forgotten, and love forlorn."

[blocks in formation]

Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I And she turned-her bosom shaken with a sudwent to rest, den storm of sighs

Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the All the spirit deeply dawning in the dark of hazel west. eyes

Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the Saying, "I have hid my feelings, fearing they mellow shade, should do me wrong;" Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver Saying, "Dost thou love me, cousin?" weeping, braid. "I have loved thee long."

Love took up the glass of time, and turned it in his glowing hands;

Here about the beach I wandered, nourishing a youth sublime With the fairy tales of science, and the long result Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden of time;

sands.

When the centuries behind me like a fruitful land Love took up the harp of life, and smote on all the reposed; chords with might; When I clung to all the present for the promise Smote the chord of self, that, trembling, passed in that it closed; music out of sight.

When I dipt into the future far as human eye Many a morning on the moorland did we hear the could seecopses ring, Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder | And her whisper thronged my pulses with the fulthat would be. ness of the spring.

In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the Many an evening by the waters did we watch the robin's breast; stately ships,

In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself And our spirits rushed together at the touching of another crest; the lips.

In the spring a livelier iris changes on the bur- Oh my cousin, shallow-hearted! Oh my Amy, nished dove;

mine no more!

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to Oh the dreary, dreary moorland! Oh the barren, thoughts of love. barren shore!

Then her cheek was pale and thinner than should Falser than all fancy fathoms, falser than all songs be for one so young, have sungAnd her eyes on all my motions with a mute ob- Puppet to a father's threat, and servile to a shrewservance hung. ish tongue!

And I said, "My cousin Amy, speak, and speak the Is it well to wish thee happy-having known truth to me; me; to decline

Trust me, cousin, all the current of my being sets On a range of lower feelings and a narrower heart to thee."

than mine!

On her pallid cheek and forehead came a color and Yet it shall be: thou shalt lower to his level day by a light,

As I have seen the rosy red flushing in the north

ern night.

day,

What is fine within thee growing coarse to sympathize with clay.

[blocks in formation]

As the husband is, the wife is; thou art mated with Never! though my mortal summers to such length a clown, of years should come

And the grossness of his nature will have weight to As the many-wintered crow that leads the clanging drag thee down. rookery home.

He will hold thee, when his passion shall have Where is comfort? in division of the records of the spent its novel force, mind?

Something better than his dog, a little dearer than Can I part her from herself, and love her, as I knew his horse. her, kind?

What is this? his eyes are heavy-think not they I remember one that perished; sweetly did she are glazed with wine. speak and move;

Go to him; it is thy duty-kiss him; take his Such a one do I remember, whom to look at was to hand in thine.

love.

Can I think of her as dead, and love her for the love she bore?

It may be my lord is weary, that his brain is overwroughtSoothe him with thy finer fancies, touch him with No-she never loved me truly; love is love for thy lighter thought.

evermore.

He will answer to the purpose, easy things to Comfort? comfort scorned of devils! this is truth understand the poet sings, Better thou wert dead before me, though I slew That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering thee with my hand. happier things.

Better thou and I were lying, hidden from the Drug thy memories, lest thou learn it, lest thy heart's disgrace, heart be put to proof, Rolled in one another's arms, and silent in a last In the dead, unhappy night, and when the rain is embrace.

on the roof.

Cursed be the social wants that sin against the Like a dog, he hunts in dreams; and thou art starstrength of youth! ing at the wall, Cursed be the social lies that warp us from the Where the dying night-lamp flickers, and the living truth! shadows rise and fall.

Cursed be the sickly forms that err from honest Then a hand shall pass before thee, pointing to his nature's rule! drunken sleep, Cursed be the gold that gilds the straitened fore- To thy widowed marriage-pillows, to the tears that head of the fool! thou wilt weep.

Well-'tis well that I should bluster!-Hadst thou less unworthy proved,

Thou shalt hear the "Never, never," whispered by the phantom years,

Would to God-for I had loved thee more than And a song from out the distance in the ringing of ever wife was loved.

thine ears;

Am I mad, that I should cherish that which bears And an eye shall vex thee, looking ancient kindness but bitter fruit? on thy pain.

I will pluck it from my bosom, though my heart be Turn thee, turn thee on thy pillow; get thee to thy at the root.

rest again.

Nay, but nature brings thee solace; for a tender Can I but relive in sadness? I will turn that earlier

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Baby fingers, waxen touches, press me from the When I heard my days before me, and the tumult mother's breast.

of my life;

Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield

Oh, the child, too, clothes the father with a dearness not his due; Half is thine, and half is his—it will be worthy of Eager-hearted as a boy when first he leaves his the two. father's field,

Oh, I see thee, old and formal, fitted to thy petty And at night along the dusky highway near and part, nearer drawn,

With a little hoard of maxims preaching down Sees in heaven the light of London flaring like a daughter's heart:

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

a dreary dawn;

[blocks in formation]

What is that which I should turn to, lighting upon | For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could days like these?

see

Every door is barred with gold, and opens but to Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder golden keys. that would be —

Every gate is thronged with suitors; all the Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of markets overflow.

I have but an angry fancy: what is that which
I should do?

magic sails,

Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;

I had been content to perish, falling on the foeman's Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there ground,

When the ranks are rolled in vapor, and the winds are laid with sound.

But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that honor feels,

And the nations do but murmur, snarling at each other's heels.

rained a ghastly dew

From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;

Far along the world-wide whisper of the southwind rushing warm,

With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunder-storm;

« ZurückWeiter »