Kitabı oku: «Songs of Womanhood», sayfa 4

WOMANHOOD

A Woman to her Poet

 
In three worlds King art thou of my desire,
O thou of many crowns! whose brow, birth-bound
With light, wears wisdom's diadem. Thou lyre
Of the speechless soul, in silence triple-crowned!
My love's proud empire smiles to know thee King;
And in the realms of Womanhood I wind
A coronet of Faith, a blood-rose ring
With azure chain of sapphire intertwined;
And where the mind's pure kingdom is, I seek
Bright crystals, pearls of Truth divine and rare
To honour thee; but on the aërial peak
That marks the Soul's eternal region – there
Thou thronest Monarch of a world serene,
Crowned with the emerald's unfathomed green.
 

The Infidel

 
My soul at times, outworn by length of woe,
A strange appeasement seeks in doubting thee,
And cries: My sacred mount's a thing as low
As any hillock; shallow rolls the sea
That should have quenched my deep unbounded thirst;
My star's a lamp that flickers earthly light;
Mere surf-worn glass my emerald; why burst,
O heart! for love of these? – Then, fullest night
Environs me, thou banished; stretching wide
My arms, I grope for refuge; all my pain
Cries babe-like for a breast whereon to hide,
And on to thine I fling myself again…
Thus fools, impatient of God's silence, cry:
There is no God! – and seek what they deny.
 

Love Within Vows

 
We love, and O! we know it; yet Love's name
Upon our lips a tremulous wish must die;
We both were made for loving, you and I,
And still was Love denied. To both it came,
More fleeting than the beauty of a flame:
Now each within the other's hungering eye
Beholds the corse of Joy embalmèd lie,
And smiles to know his penury the same.
There is no sorrow in this love, O Friend,
New-sprung from ruin, tho' our lips be sealed
By silence and the world's hard fetter. Dear
To me your being; yet we know nor fear
Of loss nor of possession; here's a shield
Shall part us nobly faithful to the end.
 

The Exile

 
You too mistook me; for no man is wise
Whom Love enclouds. Nor soul-piercing nor keen
Your vision, else there never would have been
A cause for parting. Love-enwrapped, your eyes
Failed in my love Love's self to recognise:
You saw its outer garment, where the green
Of perfect faith was marred by passion's sheen,
By outworn patience and desire's disguise.
Had you but read me to the inner soul,
You would have held me fast. I can forego
All that is sought of hand and lip, the whole
Of Love's poor joy. But I have need to know
That, when the heart fails, I may come and rest
My head upon your wide and sheltering breast.
 

The Scar Indelible

 
O your voice, your voice in the night!
How shall I wipe your voice from the night?
Only Hope could wipe it away —
And you have driven Hope away.
 
 
O your eyes, your eyes in my sight!
How shall I hide your eyes from my sight?
Only Joy could hide them away,
And you have driven Joy away.
 
 
O your name, your name in the light!
How shall I thrust your name from the light?
Only Love could thrust it away,
And you have driven Love away.
 

Revulsion

 
My heart is weary of Love and Hate:
Too sick of its Love to love you still,
Too sick of its Hate to hate you yet —
My heart is weary and would forget.
 
 
O give me nothing! 'Tis far too late:
Your much were little my thirst to fill,
Your little were scorn of Faith so deep —
O give me nothing! – and let me sleep.
 

The Captive

 
I want to take my heart away,
Break it away from the branch where it clings;
I want to quit the barren spray
Where now no throstle sings.
 
 
The butterflies have long since gone,
Gone to the bough where the gay blossoms are;
The sinking sun now bears the dawn
To other lands afar.
 
 
I want to break my heart away,
Tear it away from the bough where it grows;
O for the light of a free new day,
On the hill beyond the snows!
 

Possession's Anguish

 
One tree in my garden, one tree
Out of all the forests of the world:
One little ship afloat upon the sea,
One shell beneath the waves, flawless and pearled:
 
 
One rose on my bower, one rose
For a day to scatter on the grass:
One shifting star agleam where the wind blows,
One gem upheld, that all may share who pass:
 
 
One heart to be ached for, one heart
Out of all the bosoms that are here:
One fragile hope alive, the starver's part,
One joy already faint and pale with fear:
 
 
One flame in the darkness, one flame
 
 
For the night to sever with a breath:
One poor faith fettered to a mortal name —
And over all, the beating wings of death…
 

Treasures of Poverty

 
I sometimes watch the lips of other women
And think of all the kisses they have known;
I sometimes touch the hands of other women
In wonder at the memoried palms they own…
 
 
The kiss upon my brow was sadly given,
The hands I held but once were not my own;
And yet I would not change what I was given
For all the kisses I have never known…
 
 
Nor would I change again my heart's white desert;
O wondrous are the meetings I have known,
And strange the eyes that seek me in the desert,
Then smiling vanish to rejoin their own…
 

Solitude

 
Now empty lies the house. The languid air
Unstirred by voices creeps from room to room;
No footstep falls upon the silent stair,
All's still and dark. In every nook the tomb
Of some thought lies; remembrance everywhere
Lingers to seek a joy no longer there;
And, as I sit here lonely in the gloom,
I ask myself which evil I would choose:
Never to have, or else to have, and lose.
 

The Heart Asleep

 
Within me now my heart's asleep
And none shall wake it more;
The silence of all pain is deep
Within me. Now my heart's asleep,
It dreams of joys it might not keep;
And nothing looks before
Within me now. My heart's asleep
And none shall wake it more.
 

Adversity

 
Black winds of the world!
There is pity in your breath,
Against wild tempest weaponing.
 
 
Grey clouds of the sky!
You are gentle in your shade,
Against night-darkness tempering.
 
 
Red wounds of the heart!
There is mercy in your blood,
Against hope-murder hardening.
 
 
Pale swoons of the soul!
You are tender in your pangs
Against dire death emboldening.