Chapter II

As dreams the fasting nun of Paradise,
And finds her gnawing hunger pass away
In thinking of the happy bridal day
That soon shall dawn upon her watching eyes;
So, dreaming of your love, do I despise
Harshness or death of friends, doubt, slow decay,
Madness,—all dreads that fill me with dismay
And creep about me oft with fell surmise.

For you are true, and all I hoped you are,
O perfect answer to my calling heart!
And very sweet my life is, having thee.
Yet must I dread the dim end shrouded far;
Yet must I dream: should once the good planks start,
How bottomless yawns beneath the boiling sea!

_Adam and Eve._

When Adam fell asleep in Paradise
He made himself a helpmeet as he
dreamed;
And, lo! she stood before his waking eyes,
And was the woman that his vision seemed.

She knelt beside him there in tender awe
To find the living fountain of her soul,
And so in either’s eyes the other saw
The light they missed in Heaven, and knew the goal.

Thrice-blessed Adam, husband of thine Eve!
She brought thee for her dowry death and shame;
She taught thee one may worship and deceive;
But yet thy dream and she were still the same;
Nor ever in the desert turned thine eyes
Towards Lilith by the brooks of Paradise.

_Love Without Wings._

EIGHT SONGS.

I.

I thought: no more the worst endures!
I die, I end the strife,—
You swiftly took my hands in yours
And drew me back to life!

II.

We sat when shadows darken,
And let the shadows be:
Each was a soul to hearken,
Devoid of eyes to see.

You came at dusk to find me;
I knew you well enough ...
O Lights that dazzle and blind me—
It is no friend, but Love!

III.

How is it possible
You should forget me,
Leave me for ever
And never regret me!

I was the soul of you,
Past Love or Loathing,
Lost in the whole of you ...
Now, am I nothing?

IV.

The fallen oak still keeps its yellow leaves
But all its growth is o’er!
So, at your name, my heart still beats and grieves,
Although I love no more.

V.

And so I shall meet you
Again, my dear;
How shall I greet you?
What shall I hear?

I, you forgot!
(But who shall say
You loved me not
—Yesterday?)

VI.

Ah me, do you remember still
The garden where we strolled together,
The empty groves, the little hill
Starred o’er with pale Italian heather?

And you to me said never a word,
Nor I a single word to you.
And yet how sweet a thing was heard,
Resolved, abandoned, by us two!

VII.

I know you love me not ... I do not love you;
Only at dead of night
I smile a little, softly dreaming of you
Until the dawn is bright.

I love you not; you love me not; I know it!
But when the day is long
I haunt you like the magic of a poet,
And charm you like a song.

VIII.

O Death of things that are, Eternity
Of things that seem!
Of all the happy past remains to me,
To-day, a dream!

Long blessèd days of love and wakening thought,
All, all are dead;
Nothing endures we did, nothing we wrought,
Nothing we said.

But once I dreamed I sat and sang with you
On Ida hill.
There, in the echoes of my life, we two
Are singing still.

_Tuscan Cypress._

(SIXTEEN RISPETTI.)

I.

My mother bore me ’neath the streaming moon,
And all the enchanted light is in my soul.
I have no place amid the happy noon,
I have no shadow there nor aureole.

Ah, lonely whiteness in a clouded sky,
You are alone, nor less alone am I;
Ah, moon, that makest all the roses grey,
The roses I behold are wan as they!

II.

What good is there, Ah me, what good in Love?
Since, even if you love me, we must part;
And since for either, and you cared enough,
There’s but division and a broken heart?

And yet, God knows, to hear you say: My Dear!
I would lie down and stretch me on the bier.
And yet would I, to hear you say: My own!
With mine own hands drag down the burial stone.

III.

I love you more than any words can say,
And yet you do not feel I love you so;
And slowly I am dying day by day,—
You look at me, and yet you do not know.

You look at me, and yet you do not fear:
You do not see the mourners with the bier.
You answer when I speak and wish me well,
And still you do not hear the passing bell.

IV.

O Love, O Love, come over the sea, come here,
Come back and kiss me once when I am dead!
Come back and lay a rose upon my bier,
Come, light the tapers at my feet and head.

Come back and kiss me once upon the eyes,
So I, being dead, shall dream of Paradise;
Come, kneel beside me once and say a prayer,
So shall my soul be happy anywhere.