Tired of his dark dominion, swung the fiend Above the rolling ball in cloud part screened, Where sinners hugged their spectre of repose. Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those. And now upon his western wing he leaned, Now his huge bulk o'er Afric's sands careened, Now the black planet shadowed Arctic snows. Soaring through wider zones that pricked his scars With memory of the old revolt from Awe, He reached a middle height, and at the stars, Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank. ΙΟ THE FIRST DAY I wish I could remember that first day, First hour, first moment of your meeting me, If bright or dim the season, it might be Summer or Winter for aught I can say; So unrecorded did it slip away, So blind was I to see and to foresee, So dull to mark the budding of my tree That would not blossom yet for many a May. If only I could recollect it, such A day of days! I let it come and go It seemed to mean so little, meant so much; 10 First touch of hand in hand - Did one but know? REMEMBER Remember me when I am gone away, 1 And afterwards remember, do not grieve: REST O Earth, lie heavily upon her eyes; Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, Earth; Lie close around her; leave no room for mirth With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs. She hath no questions, she hath no replies, i Hushed in and curtained with a blessèd dearth Of all that irked her from the hour of birth; With stillness that is almost Paradise. Darkness more clear than noonday holdeth her, Lucile de Nevers (if her riddle I read) Was a woman of genius: whose genius, indeed, With her life was at war. Once, but once, in that life The chance had been hers to escape from this strife In herself; finding peace in the life of another From the passionate wants she, in hers, failed to smother. But the chance fell too soon, when the crude restless power Which had been to her nature so fatal a dower, Only wearied the man it yet haunted and thrall'd; And that moment, once lost, had been never recall'd. 10 Yet it left her heart sore: and, to shelter her heart From approach, she then sought, in that delicate art Of concealment, those thousand adroit strategies stars: Golden wires may annoy us as much as steel bars, If they keep us behind prison-windows: impassion'd 21 Her heart rose and burst the light cage she had fashion'd Out of glittering trifles around it. Unknown To herself, all her instincts, without hesitation, Embraced the idea of self-immolation. LUCILE The strong spirit in her, had her life but been blended With some man's whose heart had her own comprehended, All its wealth at his feet would have lavishly thrown. For him she had struggled and striven alone; 30 To some maze all the treasures, whose use the fond elf, More enrich'd by her love, disregards for herself. But standing apart, as she ever had done, And her genius, which needed a vent, finding none In the broad fields of action thrown wide to man's power, 39 She unconsciously made it her bulwark and tower, And built in it her refuge, whence lightly she hurl'd Her contempt at the fashions and forms of the 'world. And the permanent cause why she now miss'd and fail'd That firm hold upon life she so keenly assail'd, Was, in all those diurnal occasions that place — Say the world and the woman opposed face to face, Where the woman must yield, she, refusing to stir, Offended the world, which in turn wounded her. 50 As before, in the old-fashion'd manner, I fit With the weak hand of woman to thrust it aside, THE PORTRAIT Midnight past! Not a sound of aught Thro' the silent house, but the wind at his prayers. I sat by the dying fire, and thought A night of tears! for the gusty rain 545 SIR EDWIN ARNOLD (1832-1904) THE LIGHT OF ASIA FROM BOOK I THE MYSTERY OF EVIL But on another day the King said, "Come, Fair is the season with new leaves, bright blooms, rode 10 Into a land of wells and gardens, where, Planted both feet upon the leaping share 30 The seven brown sisters chattered in the thorn, |