Yet so revolves the axle of the world, And by that brief aversion wheels us round To morn, and rolls us on the larger paths Of annual duty. Thou observant moon, That dancest round the seasonable earth As David round the ark, but half thy ring In process, yet, complete, the circular whole Promotes thee, and expedes thy right advance, And all thy great desire of summer signs. And thou, O sun, our centre, who thyself Art satellite, and, conscious of the far Archelion, in obedience of free will
But all involved to one direct result Of multiform volition - in one pomp, One power, one tune, one time, upon one path Move with thee moving, thou, amid thy host Marchest - ah whither?
O God, before Whom We marshal thus Thy legioned works to take The secret of Thy counsel, and array Congress and progress, and, with multitude As conquerors and to conquer, in consent Of universal law, approach Thy bound, Thine immemorial bound, and at Thy face Heaven and earth flee away; O Thou Lord God, Whether, O absolute existence, Thou,
The Maker, makest, and this fair we see Be but the mote and dust of that unseen Unsought unsearchable; or whether Thou Whose goings forth are from of old, around Thy going, in mere effluence, without care, Breathest creation out into the cold Beyond Thee, and, within Thine ambient breath, So walkest everlasting as we walk
The unportioned snows; or whether, meditating Eternity, self-centred, self-fulfilled, Self-continent, Thou thinkest and we live,
A little while forgettest and we fade,
Rememberest and we are, and this bright vision Wherein we move, nay all our total sum
And story, be to Thee as to a man When in the drop and rising of a lid
Lo, the swift rack and fashion of a dream, No more; O Thou inscrutable, whose ways Are not as ours, whose form we know not, voice Hear not, true work behold not, mystery 71 Conceive not, who- as thunder shakes the world
And rings a silver bell - hast sometime moved
To mine, and, clasp'd, they tread the equal lea To the same village-school, where side by side They spell "our Father." Hard by, the twin-pride Of that grey hall whose ancient oriel gleams Thro' yon baronial pines, with looks of light Our sister-mothers sit beneath one tree. Meanwhile our Shakespeare wanders past and dreams
His Helena and Hermia. Shall we fight?
Nor force nor fraud shall sunder us! O ye Who north or south, on east or western land, Native to noble sounds, say truth for truth, Freedom for freedom, love for love, and God For God; O ye who in eternal youth Speak with a living and creative flood This universal English, and do stand
Its breathing book; live worthy of that grand Heroic utterance parted, yet a whole, Far, yet unsevered, - children brave and free 10 Of the great Mother-tongue, and ye shall be Lords of an Empire wide as Shakespeare's soul, Sublime as Milton's immemorial theme, And rich as Chaucer's speech, and fair as Spenser's dream.
Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem, No wrought flowers did adorn, But a white rose of Mary's gift,
For service meetly worn;
Her hair that lay along her back Was yellow like ripe corn.
Her seemed she scarce had been a day One of God's choristers; The wonder was not yet quite gone
From that still look of hers; Albeit, to them she left, her day Had counted as ten years.
(To one, it is ten years of years. Yet now, and in this place, Surely she leaned o'er me - her hair Fell all about my face. Nothing: the autumn fall of leaves. The whole year sets apace.)
It was the rampart of God's house That she was standing on;
By God built over the sheer depth The which is Space begun;
So high, that looking downward thence She scarce could see the sun.
It lies in Heaven, across the flood Of ether, as a bridge.
Beneath, the tides of day and night With flame and darkness ridge The void, as low as where this earth Spins like a fretful midge.
Around her, lovers, newly met
'Mid deathless love's acclaims, Spoke evermore among themselves
Their heart-remembered names; And the souls mounting up to God
Went by her like thin flames.
And still she bowed herself and stooped Out of the circling charm;
Until her bosom must have made The bar she leaned on warm, And the lilies lay as if asleep
Along her bended arm.
From the fixed place of Heaven she saw Time like a pulse shake fierce
Through all the world. Her gaze still strove Within the gulf to pierce
Its path; and now she spoke as when
The stars sang in their spheres.
The sun was gone now; the curled moon Was like a little feather
Fluttering far down the gulf; and now She spoke through the still weather. Her voice was like the voice the stars Had when they sang together.
(Ah sweet! Even now, in that bird's song, Strove not her accents there,
Fain to be hearkened? When those bells Possessed the mid-day air,
Strove not her steps to reach my side Down all the echoing stair?)
"I wish that he were come to me, For he will come," she said.
"Have I not prayed in Heaven?
Lord, Lord, has he not pray'd?
Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
"When round his head the aureole clings,
And he is clothed in white,
This room of yours, my Jenny, looks A change from mine so full of books, Whose serried ranks hold fast, forsooth, So many captive hours of youth,
The hours they thieve from day and night To make one's cherished work come right, And leave it wrong for all their theft, Even as to-night my work was left: Until I vowed that since my brain And eyes of dancing seemed so fain, My feet should have some dancing too: And thus it was I met with you. Well, I suppose 'twas hard to part, For here I am. And now, sweetheart
You seem too tired to get to bed.
It was a careless life I led
When rooms like this were scarce so strange Not long ago. What breeds the change, The many aims or the few years? Because to-night it all appears Something I do not know again.
The cloud's not danced out of my brain, The cloud that made it turn and swim While hour by hour the books grew dim. Why, Jenny, as I watch you there, For all your wealth of loosened hair, Your silk ungirdled and unlac'd, And warm sweets open to the waist, All golden in the lamplight's gleam, You know not what a book you seem, Half-read by lightning in a dream! How should you know, my Jenny? Nay, And I should be ashamed to say: Poor beauty, so well worth a kiss!
But while my thought runs on like this With wasteful whims more than enough, I wonder what you're thinking of.
For sometimes, were the truth confess'd, You're thankful for a little rest, Glad from the crush to rest within, From the heart-sickness and the din Where envy's voice at virtue's pitch Mocks you because your gown is rich; And from the pale girl's dumb rebuke, Whose ill-clad grace and toil-worn look Proclaim the strength that keeps her weak, And other nights than yours bespeak; And from the wise unchildish elf, To schoolmate lesser than himself, Pointing you out, what thing you are: Yes, from the daily jeer and jar, From shame and shame's outbraving too, Is rest not sometimes sweet to you? — But most from the hatefulness of man Who spares not to end what he began, Whose acts are ill and his speech ill, Who, having used you at his will, Thrusts you aside, as when I dine
I serve the dishes and the wine.
Well, handsome Jenny mine, sit up, I've filled our glasses, let us sup,
And do not let me think of you,
Jenny, you know the city now.
A child can tell the tale there, how Some things which are not yet enroll'd In market-lists are bought and sold Even till the early Sunday light, When Saturday night is market-night Everywhere, be it dry or wet, And market-night in the Haymarket. Our learned London children know, Poor Jenny, all your pride and woe; Have seen your lifted silken skirt Advertise dainties through the dirt; Have seen your coach-wheels splash rebuke On virtue; and have learned your look
When, wealth and health slipped past, you stare Along the streets alone, and there,
Round the long park, across the bridge,
The cold lamps at the pavement's edge Wind on together and apart,
A fiery serpent for your heart.
Let the thoughts pass, an empty cloud! Suppose I were to think aloud, What if to her all this were said? Why, as a volume seldom read Being opened half-way shuts again, So might the pages of her brain Be parted at such words, and thence Close back upon the dusty sense. For is there hue or shape defin'd In Jenny's desecrated mind, Where all contagious currents meet,
« PreviousContinue » |