Athirst where other waters sprang: But when that hour my soul won strength And there she hearken'd what I said, Next day the memories of these things, Like leaves through which a bird has flown, Still vibrated with Love's warm wings; Till I must make them all my own And paint this picture. So, 'twixt ease Of talk and sweet, long silences, She stood among the plants in bloom To feign the shadow of the trees. And as I wrought, while all above It seem'd each sun-thrill'd blossom there For now doth daylight disavow Those days nought left to see or hear. Only in solemn whispers now At night-time these things reach mine ear; When the leaf-shadows at a breath Shrink in the road, and all the heath, Lie like the mystery of death. Last night at last I could have slept, Those glades where once she walk'd with me: All wan with traversing the night, Even so, where Heaven holds breath and hears All angels lay their wings to rest, - And knows the silence there for God! Here with her face doth memory sit SUDDEN LIGHT I HAVE been here before, But when or how I cannot tell : I know the grass beyond the door, The sweet keen smell, The sighing sound, the lights around the shore. You have been mine before, How long ago I may not know: But just when at that swallow's soar Your neck turn'd so, Some veil did fall, - I knew it all of yore. Has this been thus before? And shall not thus time's eddying flight In death's despite, And day and night yield one delight once more? A SONNET-SEQUENCE From "The House of Life" INTRODUCTORY A SONNET is a moment's monument, - To one dead, deathless hour. Look that it be, Of its own arduous fulness reverent: Carve it in ivory or in ebony, As Day or Night may rule; and let Time see Its flowering crest impearl'd and orient. A Sonnet is a coin: its face reveals The soul, its converse, to what Power 't is due: Whether for tribute to the august appeals Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue, It serve; or, 'mid the dark wharf's cavernous breath, In Charon's palm it pay the toll to Death. LOVESIGHT WHEN do I see thee most, beloved one? The worship of that Love through thee made known? O love, my love! if I no more should see How then should sound upon Life's darkening slope THE BIRTH-BOND HAVE you not noted, in some family Where two were born of a first marriage-bed, In act and thought of one goodwill; but each Even so, when first I saw you, seem'd it, love, O born with me somewhere that men forget, And though in years of sight and sound unmet, Known for my soul's birth-partner well enough! SILENT NOON YOUR hands lie open in the long fresh grass, The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms 'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge. 'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. Deep in the sun-search'd growths the dragon-fly When twofold silence was the song of love. HEART'S HAVEN SOMETIMES she is a child within mine arms, Cowering beneath dark wings that love must chase, With still tears showering and averted face, Inexplicably fill'd with faint alarms: And oft from mine own spirit's hurtling harms And Love, our light at night and shade at noon, All shafts of shelterless tumultuous day. Like the moon's growth, his face gleams through his tune; And as soft waters warble to the moon, Our answering spirits chime one roundelay. WILLOWWOOD I I SAT with Love upon a woodside well, Only our mirror'd eyes met silently In the low wave; and that sound came to be And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers; He swept the spring that water'd my heart's drouth. SOUL'S BEAUTY UNDER the arch of Life, where love and death, Beauty enthroned; and though her gaze struck awe, |