Lift up your brown eyes, darling,Not timidly and shy,As in the fair, lost past, not thusI'd have you meet my eye.But grave, and calm, and earnest,Thus bravely should we part,Not sorrowfully, not lightly,And so farewell, dear heart.
Yes, fare thee well, farewell,Whate'er shall me betideMay gentlest angels comfort thee,And peace with thee abide;Our love was but a stormy love,'Tis your will we should part—So smile upon me once, darling,And then farewell, dear heart.
But lay your hand once on my brow,Set like a saintly crown,It will shield me, it will help meTo hurl temptations down.God give thee better love than mine—Nay, dear, no tears must start,See, I am quiet, thou must be,And now farewell, dear heart.
Clear shone the moon, my mansion wallsTowered white above the wood,Near, down the dark oak avenueAn humble cottage stood.
My gardener's cottage, small and brown,Yet precious unto me;For there she dwelt, who sat by meThat night beside the sea.
So sweet, the white rose on her neckWas not more fair than she,As silently her soft brown eyesLooked outward o'er the sea.
So still, the muslin o'er her heartSeemed with no breath to stir,As silently she sat and heardThe tale I told to her.
"It was a knight of Normandy,He vowed on his good swordHe would not wed his father's choice,The Lady Hildegarde.
"Near dwelt the beauteous Edith,A lowly maiden she—"Ah! still unmoved, her dark sweet eyesLooked far away from me.
"Dearer to him one blossom smallThat had but touched her hand,Than all the high-born beauties—The ladies of the land.
"Dearer to him," quick came my breathAs I looked down on her,But the white roses in her handNo lightest leaf did stir.
Ah! wistfully I read her face,Full gently did I speak,No light dawned in her tender eye,No flush stole o'er her cheek.
"He wore her colors on the field,He went where brave hearts were;Ah, gallantly and noblyHe fought for love of her.
"He loved her with his whole true heart,"Now like a sudden flameUp to her cheek so pure and white,A flood of crimson came.
Her hands unclasped, down to her feetMy flowers unnoticed shook;I leaned and followed with my gazeHer glad and eager look.
I saw a boat sweep round the rock,Rowed with a steady grace;I saw the fisher's manly form,His brown and handsome face.
"For love of her, to victoryHe his brave squadron led,Then broke his true heart, and her scarfPillowed his dying head.
"So died this knight of Normandy,Died with his sword unstained;"I know not that she heard my words,So near the boat had gained.
I said, Heaven bless her, in my heart,She had no thought for me;I turned away and left them thereBeside the beating sea.
Behind me lay the sweet moonlight,My shadow went before,And passed a dark and gloomy shapeBefore me through the door.
Oh strange and sad this life of ours,This life beneath the sun;O sad and strange and full of painGod help us, every one.
God help us, that we may endureLike him of Normandy;And die with sword unstained, that hasLed us to victory.
On the shore I sit and gazeOut on the twilight sea,For my ship may come, though many daysI have waited patiently;With waiting trusting eyes,A lonely watch I keepFor its silver sails to riseLike a blossom out of the deep.
It is built of a costly wood,Bearing the strange perfumeOf the gorgeous solitude,Where it grew in tropical gloom;And the odorous scent, the spicy balmOf its isle it will bear to me,As I stand on the shore, in the magic calm.And my ship come in from sea.
It is laden with all that is sweetOf the beauty of every clime;Slowly and proudly 'twill glide to my feetIn the eve of that fair "Sometime,"Before me its sails will be furled,A princess I shall be,Crowned with the wealth of the world,When my ship comes in from sea.
Sweet faces I then shall see,Tender, undoubting, true,Soft hands will be stretched to meWith a welcome I never knew;In the peace of such tendernessI shall rest forevermore,And weep in my perfect bliss,As I never wept before.
Sometimes I think it is not farAnd I bend my head and list,For I think I see a slender sparGleam through the golden mist;And I fancy I hear the soundOf wind in a silken sail,And an odor rare from Eastern ground,Floats in on the languid gale.
But I sit and watch the westTill the sun goes down, in vain;It was only a cloud with an ivory crest,A cloud of vapor and rain;It rises and hides the sea,And my heart grows chill and numb,Lest this terrible thing should be,That my ship will never come.
But the morn is bright—the waveIs a golden and shining track,Softly the waters the white sands lave,And my trusting faith comes back;Oh, all that I ever lost,And all that I long to be,Will be mine when the deep is crossed,And my ship comes home from sea.
I said that I would seeHer once, to curse her fair, deceitful grace,To curse her for my life-long agony;But when I saw her face,I said, "Sweet Christ, forgive both her and me."
High swelled the chanted hymn,Low on the marble swept the velvet pall,I bent above, and my eyes grew dim,My sad heart saw it all—She loved me, loved me though she wedded him.
And then shot through my soulA thrill of fierce delight, to think that heMust yield her form, his all, to Death's control,The while her love for meWould live, when sun and stars had ceased to roll.
But no, on the white brow,Graved in its marble, was deep calm impressed,Saying that peace had come to her through woe;Saying, she had found restAt last, and I, I must not love her now.
It may be in Heaven's grace,Beneath the shade of some immortal palm,That God will let me see her angel face;Then wild, wild heart be calm,Wipe out that old love, every sorrowful trace.
I know that if it be,We two should meet again in Paradise,'Twould trouble her pure soul if she should seeThe old grief in my eyes;'Twould grieve her dear heart through eternity.
Wipe out that grief, my soul,And shall I lose all love, in losing this?Unclasp my spirit, self's close stolid stole.Are there no lives to bless?So will I give my love, my life, no stinted dole.
God will note deeds and sighs,Throned in far splendor on the heavenly hill,Though mad sounds from this wretched planet rise—Moans wild enough to fillHeaven's air, and drown its harps in doleful cries.
And angels shall look down,Through incense rising from my godly deeds.Approving gleam those eyes of tender brown;Sure on a brow that bleeds,The thorns should change to a more glorious crown.
Well done, my soul, well done,Out of thy grief to rear a ladder tallTo reach the land that lies beyond the sun,To scale the jasper wall,And rise to glory on grief's stepping stone.
God looks into the tide,Angel and demon troubled, of a man's mind;And if my alms are scattered far and wide,Only my love to find,Only to pave a path to reach her side—
Will he accept from meMy worship, gifts—the heavens are very still,No answer do I hear, no sign I see,If I but knew His will;Would He would come a-walking on the sea.
* * * * *
The storm is overpast, for sweet and fairA sudden radiance shone o'er wave and lea;And in the glory trembling through the air,He came unto me walking on the sea.
The heavy waves that had rushed to and froCowered at His feet in sudden melody;And all transfigured in the shining glowDid He come to me walking on the sea.
Far off I saw His form, but knew it not;He nearer drew, He smiled, my fears did flee;His loving look dispelled a lingering doubt,As He came to me o'er the twilight sea.
I dropped my burden on the shelving sandSo I might meet Him, if such bliss could be,I reached the shore, I knelt and kissed His handWith blissful tears beside the twilight sea.
Such love He woke, I would my life have lainLow down to pave His way, "He loveth meWho loveth this sad world, and blesseth man,"Came blown to me across the twilight sea.
Perplexing questions died within my breast,"Deep peace hath he who doeth lovinglyMy will, who loveth most, he loveth best,"Came blown to me across the twilight sea.
The storm was overpast, a breath of balmLapped the low waves, and lingered on the lea,For in the twilight fell a holy calm,He came unto me walking on the sea.
* * * * *
Was this a dream? If it were not a dreamMy life is blest in truth, and if it be,I know across the deep has fallen a gleam,A bridge of glory spans the twilight sea.
Soft o'er the meadow, and murmuring mere,Falleth a shadow, near and more near;Day like a white dove floats down the sky,Cometh the night, love, darkness is nigh;So dies the happiest day.
Slow in thy dark eye riseth a tear,Hear I thy sad sigh, Sorrow is near;Hope smiling bright, love, dies on my breast,As day like a white dove flies down the west;So dies the happiest day.
So all things come to our mind at last,He is close by your side in the twilight gloom,And you two are alone in the dim old room,Yet he is mute, as you bade him be, time past.
You bade him to weary you, never againWith his idle love, in truth he was wise,For he spake no more, although in his eyesYou read, you fancied, a language of pain.
But this is past, and vex you he never will,With loving glance, or look of sad reproach;His lips move not, smile not at your approach;The flowers he clasps are not more calm and still.
Your favorite flowers he has heard you praise,Purple pansies, and lilies creamy white;But he offers them not to you to-night,He troubles you not, he has learned "his place."
You wished to teach him that lesson, you toldHim as much, you know, in this very room,'Twas about this hour, for the twilight gloomAs now, was enwrapping you, fold on fold.
Was "his place" in the haunts of the herded poor,Where the pestilence stalked with deadly breath?Face to face with its dreadful shadow, death,How he wrestled with it from door to door,
Giving his life that others life might find,Shaming you with his toil, his bravery,Not by a word or look, no boaster he,He was always gentle to you, and kind.
He has found "his place," but no need of fears,No; you need not summon your jealous pride,For "his place" will never be by your side,Nevermore, nevermore, through all the years.
And when from Time shall drop Earth's daysLike chaff from the bloom of the year sublime,With the gentle spirits of every time,And the martyr souls, he will find his place.
So answers will come to our seeking wills,Nevermore will his sad face vex your sight,For you never will make your robes so whiteAs to stand by him on the heavenly hills.
Yes, lay your cheek upon his, and pressThe clustering hair from his broad white brow,Have no fear, he will not annoy you nowBy a word in praise of your loveliness.
Yes, kneel by him, moaning, kissing his brow,Not now will it grieve him, your tears' swift rain,And he will not ask you to share your pain;Ah! Once he would, but not now—not now.
So leave the old room in the waning light,Go out in your peerless beauty and pride,And let no shadow go out by your sideTo follow you under the falling night.
The world is asleep! All hushed is Nature's warm, sweet breath.The world is asleep, and dreaming the silent dream of snow,But through the silence that seems like the silence of death,Under their shroud of ermine, the souls of the roses glow.
And forever the heart of the water throbs and beats,Though bound by a million gleaming fetters and crystal rings,No sound on lonesome mornings the lonely watcher greets,But the frosty pane is impressed with the shadow of coming wings.
I know not where you wait for me in all your maiden sweetness,Sweet soul in whom my life will find its rest, its full completeness;But somewhere you await me, Fate will lead us to each other,As roses know the sunlight, so shall we know one another.
Dear heart, what are you doing in this twilight's purple splendor,Do you tend your dewy flowers with fingers white and slender,Heavy, odor-laden branches in blessing bent above you,Fond lilies kneeling at your feet, winds murmuring they love you?
Mayhap, your heart in maiden peace is like a closed bud sleeping,Wrapped in pure folds of saintly thought, its tender freshnesskeeping.Yet like a dream that comes in sleep, your soul sweet quietbreaking,Is a thought of me, my darling, that shall come true on waking.
Perchance you turn from passionate vows, words wild with love's sweet madness, With soft eyes looking far sway, in yearning trust and sadness; A look that tells his alien soul how widely you are parted, Though he knows not whom your rapt eyes seek, my sweet, my loving-hearted.
Oh, the world is rough; the heart against its sneers, its coldderision,Locks all its better feelings, making it a gloomy prison;But your hand, my angel, shall unlock its rocky, dust-strewnportal,Your smile shall rouse its dying dreams of good to life immortal.
You will make me better, purer, for love, the true refiner,Burning out the baser passions, will kindle the diviner,Will plead and wind my spirit, not to shame its heavenly station,You will trust me, and that trust will prove my tempted soul'ssalvation.
God keep you tenderly, my life's dear hope and unseen blessing;Oh, night wind, touch her tresses till I come with fond caressing,Thy crown of pearl-linked light, oh, royal moon stoop downand give her,Till queen of love's own kingdom, I crown her mine forever.
Oh! the day was dark and dreary,For clouds swept o'er the sun,The burden of life seemed heavy,And its warfare never done;But I heard a voice at twilight,It whispered in my ear,"Oh, doubting heart, look upward,Dear soul, be of good cheer.Oh, weary heart, look upward,Dear soul, be of good cheer."
And lo! on looking upwardThe stars lit up the skyLike the lights of an endless city,A city set on high.And my heart forgot its sorrowThese heavenly homes to see—Sure in those many mansionsIs room for even me,Sure in those many mansions,Is room for thee and me.
Here in the silent doorway let me lingerOne moment, for the porch is still and lonely;That shadow's but the rose vine in the moonlight;All are asleep in peace, I waken only,And he I wait, by my own heart's beatingI know how slow to him the tide creeps by,Nor life, nor death, could bar our hearts from meeting;Were worlds between, his soul to mine would fly.
Oh, shame! to think a heap of paltry metalShould overbalance manhood's noblest graces;A film of gold had gilt his worth and honor,Warming to smiles the coldness of their faces;Gentle to me, they rise in condemnation,And plead with me than words more powerfully.Oh! well I love them—but they have wealth and stationTo fill their hearts, and he has only me.
But oh, my roses, how their great pure facesBeseech me as they bend from sculptured column.So with my wet cheek closely pressed against them,I listen to their pleadings sweet and solemn.Oh, Memory, if an hour of gloom and grievingI here have known, that hour before me set;But all the peace and joy I am leaving,In mercy, Memory, let me forget.
Oh, home! if here a frown has ever chilled me,Let it now rise and darken on my sight.If a harsh word or look has ever grieved me,Let me remember that harsh word to-night.But all the tender words, the fond caressing,The loving smiles that daily I have met,The patient mother love, God's crowning blessing,In mercy, Memory, let me forget.
Here she has kissed me with fond looks of greeting;Will that smile fade when waiting me no longer?Oh, true first love, tender and changing never;But there's a love that nearer is and stronger—He comes! I kneel and kiss the stone, oh, mother,Where you have stood and blessed me with your eyes;Forgive—forgive me, mother—father—brother—For oh, he loves me—and love sanctifies.
Once through an autumn woodI roamed in tearful mood,By grief dismayed, doubting, and ill at ease;When from a leafless oak,Methought low murmurs broke,Complaining accents, as of words like these:
"Incline thy mighty earGreat Mother Earth, and hearHow I, thy child, am sorely vexed and tossed;No one to heed my moan,I shudder here, aloneWith my destroyers, wind and snow, and frost.
Then low and unawareThis answer cleaved the air,This tender answer, "Doubting one be still;Oh trust to me, and knowThe wind, the frost, the snow,Are but my servants sent to do my will.
"For the destroyer frost,His labor is not lost,Rid thee he shall of many noisome things;And thou shalt praise the snowWhen drinking far belowRefreshment sweet from overflowing springs.
"My child thou'rt not alone,I love thee, hear thy moan,But winds that fret thee only causeth theeTo more securely stand,More firmly clasp my hand,And soaring upward, closer cling to me."
Then from my burdened heartThe shadows did depart,Then said I softly—"winds of sorrow blowSo I but closer clingTo thee, my Lord, my King,Who loves me, even me, so weak and low."
I never shall hear your voice again,Your voice so gentle and lowBut the thought of you, Jenny Allen,Will go with me where I go.Your sweet voice drowns the Atlantic waveAnd the rush of the Alpine snow.
You were very fair, Jenny Allen,Fair as a woodland rose;Your heart was pure as an angel's heart,Too good for earth and its woes,And I loved you, Jenny Allen,With a sorrowful love, God knows.
You loved me, Jenny Allen,My sorrow made me wise;And I read your heart, 'twas an easy task,For within your clear blue eyes,Your pure and innocent thoughts shone outLike stars from the summer skies.
He had riches and fame with his seventy yearsWhen he won you for his wife;You were but a child, and poor, and tired,Tired of toil and strife;And you only thought of rest, poor dove,When you sold your beautiful life.
Alas, for the hour I entered inYour halls of lordly mirth;For I lost there, Jenny Allen,All that gives life worth;You taught your teacher, Jenny,The saddest lesson of earth.
Ah, woe's the hour I ever steppedYour mansion walls within;For you loved me, Jenny Allen,But you never dreamed 'twas sin;Your heart was white as a lily's heart,When it drinks the sunshine in.
God pity me, Jenny Allen,That I ever loved you so,I would have died to give you peace,And I only gave you woe;For your eyes looked like a wounded dove's,When I told you I must go.
You were but a child, Jenny Allen,But that hour made you wise;A woman's grief and holy strengthSprang up in your mournful eyes;Ah, you were an angel, Jenny,An angel in woman's guise.
But a pitiful, pitiful look, Jenny,Your seraph features wore,As I left you that dark autumn morn,Left you forevermore;And heaven seemed shut against meAs I blindly shut that door.
The years have rained on you golden gifts,You dwell in a queenly show;There are jewels of price in your silken hair,And upon your neck of snow.Do you ever think of me, Jenny,And the dream of the long ago?
I have sat me down under foreign skiesAfire with an Orient glow;I have seen the moon gild the desert sand,And silver the Arctic snow,But the thought of you Jenny Allen,Goes with me where I go.
Not far away does that bright city stand,'Tis but the mist o'er its dividing stream,That wraps the glory of its glitt'ring strand,Its radiant skies, and mountains silvery gleam;Oh, often in the blindness of our fateWe wander very near the city's gate.
We love that unseen city, and we yearnEver within our earthly homes to seeIts golden towers, that in the sunset burn,Its white walls rising from the quiet sea;Its mansions gleaming with immortal glow,Filled with the treasure lost to us below.
Yes, dear ones that we loved and lost are there;Bright in that fair clime beam those sweet eyes now;Fanned by its soft breeze floats the shining hair,Hair we have smoothed back from the gentlest brow;Softest white hands we kissed and clasped in oursSlipped from our grasp, lured by its glowing flowers.
Fairer it seems, its velvet walks were sweet,Dearer its quiet streets, with gold paved o'er,Since o'er them lightly fall the little feet—The light feet bounding through our homes no more;Oh, heart's dear music, tearfully missed,That city's filled with melody like this.
It is not far away; down from its arches rollAnthems too sacred for the outward ear,Pouring their haunting sweetness on the soul;Oh, how our waiting spirits thrill to hear,In listening to the low bewildering strain,Voices they said we should not hear again.
Oh, dear to us that city. He is there,He whom unseen we love; no need of light;His tender eyes illume the crystal airWhere His beloved walk in vesture white,What though on earth they wandered, poor, distressed,And saw through tears His glory, now they rest.
Oh, that fair city, shining o'er the tide,Thither we journey through the storm and night;But soon shall we adown its still bay glide,Soon will the city's gate gleam on our sight,There with our own forever shall we be,In that fair city rising from the sea.
I am an outcast, sinful and vile I know,But what are you, my lady, so fair, and proud, and high?The fringe of your robe just touched me, me so low—Your feet defiled, I saw the scorn in your eye,And the jeweled hand, that drew back your garments fine.What should you say if I told you to your faceYour robes are dyed with as deep a stain as mine,The only difference is you are better paid for disgrace.
You loved a man, you promised to be his bride,Strong vows you gave, you were in the sight of Heaven his wife,And when you sold yourself for another's wealth, he died;And what is that but murder? To take a lifeThat is a little beyond my guilt, I ween,To murder the one you love is a crime of deeper gradeThan mine, yet in purple you walk on the earth a queen;I think the wages of sin are very unequally paid.
For what did you receive when you sold yourself for his gold,When with guilty loathing you plighted your white, false hand,A palace in town and country, his name long centuries old,A carriage with coachmen and footmen, wealth in broad tractsof land,Wealth in coffers and vaults, high station, the family gems,For these you stood at God's altar and swore to a lie;But smother your conscience to silence if it condemns,With this you are liberally paid for your life of infamy.
What wages did I receive when I gave myself for his love,So young, so weak, and loving him, loving him so—What did I get for my sin, O merciful God above!But the terrible, terrible wages—pain and want and woe;The world's scorn, and my own contempt and disdain,The hideous hue of guilt that stares in every eye.Like you I cannot 'broider with gold my garments' stain,You see, my lady, you get far better wages than I.
In your constancy to sin you far exceed my power,Since that day marked with blackness from other days—The day before your marriage—never since that hourHave I heard his voice, have I looked upon his face;For I threw his gold at his feet and stole awayAnywhere—anywhere—only out of his sight,Longing to hide from the mocking glare of the day,Longing to cover my eyes forever away from the light.
And long I strove to hate him, for I thoughtI was so young, a friendless orphan left to his care,It was a terrible sin that he had wrought,And since I had the burden of guilt to bearIt was enough without the wild despair of love,So I strove to reason my passionate love to hate.Can we kneel with tears and bid the strong sun moveAway from the sky? It is vain to war with fate.
That a hard life I have lived since then, 'tis true,My hands are unblackened by sinful wages since that day,And my baby died, I was not fit, God knewTo guide a sinless soul, so He took my bird away;And my heart was empty and lone as a robin's winter nest,With the trusting eyes that never looked scornfully,The head that nestled fearlessly on my guilty breast,And the little constant hands that clung to me, even me.
But I knew it were best for God to unclasp her handFrom mine, while yet she clung to it in trust,Than for her to draw it from me, live to understand,Blush for her mother—had she lived she must.And then she had her father's smile, and his soft, dark eyes,Maybe she would have had his fair, false ways—his heart.It is well that she passed through the starry gate of the skiesThough it closed and bars us forever and ever apart.
For I am a sinful woman, well I know,And though by others' sins my own are not excusedThings seem so strange to me in this strange world of woe,In a maze of doubt and wonder I get confused;Whether a sin of impulse, born of a fatal love,Is worse than deliberate bargain, a life of legal shame,Legal below, I think in the courts aboveThe heavenly scribes will call a crime by its right name.
But we stand before the wise, wise judgment-seatOf the world, and it calls you pure,That in your pearl-gemmed breast all saintly virtues meet,Holier than other holy women, higher, truer,So sweet a creature an angel in woman's guise.They would not wonder much, though much they might admire,Should you be caught again up to your native skiesFrom an alien world in a chariot of fire.
So we stand before the tender judgment-seatOf the world, and it calls me vile,So low that it is a wonder God will letHis joyous sunshine gild my guilty head with its smiles,An outcast barred beyond the pale of hope,Beyond the lamp of their mercy's flickering light,They would scarcely wonder if the earth should opeAnd swallow up the wretch from their vexed sight.
Before another judgment-seat one day we will standYou and I, my lady, and he by our side,He who won my heart, who held my life in his hand,He who bought you with gold to be his bride;Before an assembled world we shall stand, we three,To meet from the merciful Judge our doom of weal or woe,He holds His righteous balance true and evenly,And which is the vilest sinner we then shall know.
Isabelle has gold, and lands,Fate gave her a fair lot;Like the white lilies of the fieldHer soft hands toil not.I gaze upon her splendorWithout an envious sigh;I have no wealth in lands and gold,And yet sweet peace have I.
I know the blue sky smiles as brightOn the low field violet,As on the proud crest of the pineOn loftiest mountain set.I am content—God loveth all,And if He tenderlyThe sparrow guides, He knoweth bestThe place where I should be.
Her violet velvet curtains trailDown to the floor,But brightly God's rich sunshine streamsInto my cottage door;And not a picture on her walls,Hath beauty unto me,Like that which from my window frameI daily lean to see.
She has known such pomp, she careth not,For any humble sight;Flowers bending o'er the brook's green edge,To her give no delight;She tends her costly eastern birdWith gold upon its wing;But her wild roses bloom for me,For me her wild birds sing.
She tires of home, and fain would seeThe brightest clime of earth,And so she sails for summer landsWith friends to share her mirth;She waves her jewelled hand to meThe opal spray-clouds fly;She leaves me with the fading shore—Do I envy her? not I.
She will see the sailor's hardened palmsCurbing the toiling sails,She will faint beneath the tropic calmsAnd face the angry gales.She will labor for her happinessWhile I've no need to speak,But on a lotus leaf I float,Unto the land they seek.
There, like a dream from out the wave,I see a city rise,I stand entranced, as by a spell,Upon the Bridge of Sighs.The low and measured dip of oarsFalls softly on my earBlent with the tender evening song,Of some swart gondolier.
And down from marble terracesVeiled ladies slowly pass,And, entering antique barges,Glide down the streets of glass;And eyes filled with the dew and fireOf their own midnight sky,Gleam full on me, as silentlyThe gondolas float by.
The sunset burns, and turns the waveTo an enchanted stream,And far up on the shadowy steepsThe white walled convents gleam,The music of their bells float out—The sweet wind bears it by,Adown the warm and sunny slopes,Where purple vineyards lie.
And I stand in old cathedrals,By tombs of buried kings,White angels bend above them—Mute guard with folded wings.Far down the aisle the organ peals,The priests are knelt in prayerAnd memories flood its ancient walls,As the music fills the air.
I may not see that blessed land,But she roams o'er the sodThe Lord's pure eyes have hallowed,Where once His feet have trod.Yet He in mercy has drawn near,He has me comforted—So near He seemed I almost feltHis hand upon my head.
And I with slow and reverent stepsThrough ancient cities roam,Treading o'er crumbling columns,The dust of spire and dome;The tall and shattered archesTheir flickering shadows cast,Like bent and hoary spectres,Low murmuring of the past.
And Isabelle toils o'er the Alps,Through fields of ice and snow,To see the lofty glaciersFlash in the sun's red glow.I feel no cold, and yet on highTheir shining spires I see.Why should I envy Isabelle?Why should she pity me?
Why should I envy IsabelleWhen thus so easily,Upon a tropic flower's perfumeI float across the sea?
Again I see that May moon shine,Dost thou remember, soul of mine?I held your hand in mine, you know,And as I bent to whisper low,A tender light was in your eye,"Sweetheart, good-by, sweetheart, good-by."
There came a time my lips were whiteBeneath the pale and cold moonlight,And burning words I might not speak,You read, love, in my ashen cheek,As my whole heart breathed in this one cry,"Sweetheart, good-by, sweetheart, good-by."
Time's waves that roll so swift and fleetHave borne you far from me, my sweet,Have borne you to a sunny bay,Where brightest sunshine gilds your way,Do these words ever dim your sky—Sweetheart, good-by, sweetheart, good-by?
I cannot tell, but this I knowThey go with me where'er I go,I hear them in the crowded mart,At midnight lone, they chill my heart—They dim for me the earth and sky,Sweetheart, good-by, sweetheart good-by.
And in that hour of mystery,When loved ones shall bend over me,Near ones to kiss my lips and weep,As nearer steals the dreamless sleep,From all I'll turn with this last sigh,"Sweetheart, good-by, sweetheart, good-by."
Put the crown of your love on my forehead,Its sweet links clasped with a kiss,And all the great monarchs of EnglandNever wore such a gem as this.Give me your hand, little maiden,That sceptre so pearly white,And I'll envy not the kingliest wandThat ever waved in might.
I know 'tis like asking a morning cloudWith a grim old mountain to stay,But your love would soften its ruggedness,And melt its roughness away.I have seen a delicate rosy cloud,A rough, gray cliff enfold,Till his heart was warmed by its loveliness,And his brow was tinged with its gold.
Oh, poor and mean does my life showCompared with the beauty of thine,Like a diamond embedded in graniteYour life would be set in mine;But a faithful love should guard you,And shelter you from life's storm,The rock must be shivered to atomsEre its treasure should come to harm.
How your sweet face has shone on meFrom the tropics' midnight sea,When the sailors slept, and I kept watchAlone with my God and thee.I know your heart is relenting,The tender look in your eyesSeems like that sky's soft splendorWhen the sun was beginning to rise.
You need not veil their glorious lightWith your eyelids' cloud of snow,A tell-tale bird with a crimson wingOn your cheek flies to and fro;And whispers to me such blissful hopeThat my foolish tears will start,Ah, little bird! your fluttering wingIs folded on my heart.
I might strive as well to melt to softness the soulless breastOf some fair and saintly image, carven out of stone,With my smile, as to stir you heart from its icy rest,Or win a tender glance from your royal eyes, Ione;But your sad smile lures me on, as toward some fatal rockIs the fond wave drawn, but to break with passionate moan.Break! to be spurned from its cold feet with a stony shock,As you would spurn my suppliant heart from your feet, Ione.
Ione, there is a grave in the churchyard under the hill,The villagers shun like the unblest haunt of a ghost,Dropped there out of a dark spring night, I remember still,For a foreign ship had anchored that night on the coast;On the gray stone tablet is written this one word "Rest."Did he who sleeps underneath seek for it vainly here?What is the secret hidden there in the buried breast,The secret deeper sunken by dripping rains each year.
When autumn's bending boughs and harvests burdened the groundAn early laborer, chancing to pass that way alone,Saw a small glove gleaming whitely upon the mound,And into the delicate wrist was woven "Ione,"And he said as he dropped it again his eye did mark—For this unknown, unhallowed grave had been shunned by all—A narrow footpath winding through to the lofty wall,That guards the wild grandeur and gloom of your father's park.
'Tis well to put small faith in a simple rustic's eye,This story your father heard, and haughtily denied,The grass waves rankly now, and gives the fellow the lie,How many secrets the tall, deceitful grasses hide,Patting the turf that covers a maiden's innocent rest,And creeping and winding old haunted ruins among,As silently smooth's the mould above the murdered breast,Smothering down to deeper silence a buried wrong.
In your father's gallery once, I saw your pictured face,Ione you were not always so sad and pale as this,No beauty in all the long line of your noble raceHad eyes so softly bathed in bright bewitchment of bliss,You were just nineteen, they said—it was painted in SpainThe year before you came—it was on your foreign tour,By an artist too low to be reached by your disdain,A delicate, passionate-hearted boy, proud and poor.
So said the rumors floating to us across the sea,You had only an invalid mother with you there,I fancy that then you set your heart's pure feelings freeFor the first time, far from your proud old father's care,For you used to wander down the shaded garden ways,Your slight hand closely clasped by the fair-hairedEnglish youth,His blue eyes bent on your blushing face, so rumor says,Though such light birds are not to be trusted much in truth.
Your face is not the face that looked from the antique frame,Ione, and even that is gone from the oaken wall;That picture that never was painted for gold or fame,So vowed the artist friend who went with me to the hall;But the pain on your white brow sits regally I ween,The smile on your perfect lips is perilously sweet,My slavish glances crown you my love, my fate, my queen,As you pass in peerless beauty adown the village street.
Like emerald lakes the meadows lie,And daisies dot the main;The sunbeams from the deep blue skyDrop down in golden rain,And gild the lily's silver bell,And coax buds apart,But I miss the sunshine of my youth,The summer of my heart.
The wild birds sing the same glad songThey sang in days of yore;The laughing rivulet glides along,Low whispering to the shore,And its mystic water turns to goldThe sunbeam's quivering dart,But I miss the sunshine of my youth,The summer of my heart.
The south wind murmurs tenderlyTo the complaining leaves;The Flower Queen gorgeous tapestryOf rose and purple weaves.Yes, Nature's smile, the wary while,Wears all its olden truth,But I miss the sunshine of my heart,The summer of my youth.
Sitting alone in the windy tower,While the waves leap high, or are low at rest,What does she think of, hour by hour,With her strange eyes bent on the distant west,And a fresh white rose on her withered breast,What does she think of, hour by hour?The Lady Cecile.
Low under the lattice, day by day,White homeward sails like swallows come,But the sad eyes look afar and away,And the sailors' songs as they near their home,No glance may win, for she sitteth dumb,With her sad eyes looking afar and away,The Lady Cecile.
Just forty years has she dwelt aloneWith an ancient servant, grim and gray,Sat alone under sun and moon;But once each year, on the third of June,She treads the creaking staircase down,But back in her tower with the dying day,Is the Lady Cecile.
Beneath the tower of the lonesome hall,Stone stairs creep down where the slow tide flows,There, out of a niche in the mouldering wall,Low leaneth a royal tropical rose:Who set it there none cares, nor knows,Long years ago in the mouldering wall,But the Lady Cecile.
But each third of June as the sun dips low,She descends the stairs to the water's verge,And plucks a rose from the lowest boughWhich the lapping waves almost submerge,And what forms out of the deep, resurgeTo vex her, maybe, with mournful brow,Knows the Lady Cecile.
Her locks are sown with silver hairs,And the face they shroud is pale and wan;Once it was sweet as the rose she wears,Though the perfect lips wore a proud disdain!But the rose-face paled by time and pain,No new springs know, like the flower she wears,The Lady Cecile.
Why does she set the fresh white roseSo faithfully over her silent breast?And what her thoughts are nobody knows,She sits with her secret hid, unguessed,With her strange eyes bent on the distant west,So the slow years come, and the slow year goes,O'er the Lady Cecile.
Forty years! and June the thirdCame with a storm—loud the winds did blow—And up in her tower the lady heardThe deep waves calling her far below;Wild they leaped and surged, wild the winds did blow,And, listening alone, she thought she heard"Cecile! Cecile!"
And, wrapping her cloak round her withered form,She crept down the stairs of crumbling stone;Higher and fiercer raged the stormAs she bent and plucked the rose—but oneHad the tempest spared—and the winds did moan,And she thought that she heard o'er the voice of the storm,"Cecile! Cecile!"
She placed the rose on her bloodless breast,And dizzy and faint she reached the tower,And her strange eyes looked out again on the west,And a wave dashed up, as she looked from the tower,Like a hand, and lifted the roots of the flower,And swept it—carried it out to the west,From the Lady Cecile.
And like death was her face, when suddenly,Strangely—a tremulous golden gleamPierced the pile of clouds, high-massed and gray,And the shining, quivering, golden beamSeemed a bridge of light—a gold highwayThrown o'er the wild waves of the bay;And the Lady Cecile
Did eagerly out of her lattice leanWith her glad eyes bent on that bridge gold-bright,As if some form by her rapt eyes seen,Were beckoning her down that path of light,That quivering, shining, led from sight,Ending afar in the sunset sheen.And the Lady Cecile
Cried with her lips that erst were dumb"See! am I not true? your flower I wore,"And her thin hand eagerly touched the flower,"He is smiling upon me! yes, love, I come."And a pleasant light, like the light of home,Lit her eyes, and life and pain were o'erTo the Lady Cecile.
A spirit is out to-night!His steeds are the winds; oh, list,How he madly sweeps o'er the clouds,And scatters the driving mist.
We will let the curtains fallBetween us and the storm;Wheel the sofa up to the hearth,Where the fire is glowing warm.
Little student, leave your book,And come and sit by my side;If you dote on Tennyson so,I'll be jealous of him, my bride.
There, now I can call you my own!Let me push back the curls from your brow,And look in your dark eyes and seeWhat my bird is thinking of now.
Is she thinking of some high perchOf freedom, and lofty flight?You smile; oh, little wild bird,You are hopelessly bound to-night!
You are bound with a golden ring,And your captor, like some grim knight,Will lock you up in the deepest cellOf his heart, and hide you from sight.
Sweetheart, sweetheart, do you hear far awayThe mournful voice of the sea?It is telling me of the timeWhen I thought you were lost to me.
Nay, love, do not look so sad;It is over, the doubt and the pain;Hark! sweet, to the song of the fire,And the whisper of the rain.
Like idle clouds our lives move on,By change and chance as idly blown;Our hopes like netted sparrows fly,And vainly beat their wings and die.Fate conquers all with stony will,Oh, heart, be still—be still!
No! change and chance are slaves that waitOn Him who guides the clouds, not fate,But the High King rules seas and sun,He conquers, He, the Mighty One.So powerless, 'neath that changeless will,Oh, heart, be still—be still!
As a young bird fallen from its nestBeats wildly the kind hand againstThat lifts it up, so tremblinglyOur hearts lie in God's hand, as HeUplifts them by His loving will,Oh, heart, be still—be still!
Uplifts them to a perfect peace,A rest beyond all earthly ease,'Neath the white shadow of the throne—Low nest forever overshoneBy tenderest love, our Lord's dear will;Oh, heart, be still—be still!
The Squire was none of your common menWhose ancestors nobody knows,But visible was his lineageIn the lines of his Roman nose,That turned in the true patrician curve—In the curl of his princely lips,In his slightly insolent eyelids,In his pointed finger-tips.
Very erect and grand looked the SquireAs he walked o'er his broad estate,For he felt that the earth was honoredIn bearing his honorable weight;Proudly he strolled through his wooded parkDeer-haunted and gloomily grand,Or gazed from his pillared porticoesOn his far-outlying land.
In a tiny whitewashed cottage,Half-covered with roses wild,His cheerful-faced old gardener dweltAlone with his motherless child;The Squire owned the very floor he trod,The grass in his garden lot,The poor man had only this one little lambYet he envied the rich man not.
Poor was the gardener, yet rich withalIn this priceless pearl of a girl,So perfect a form, so faultless a faceNever brightened the halls of an Earl;Her eyes were two fathomless stars of light,And they shone on the Squire day by day,Till their warm and perilous splendorSo melted his pride away,
That he fain would have taken this pretty pet lambTo dwell in his stately fold,To fetter it fast with a jeweled chain,And cage it with bars of gold;But this coy little lamb loved its freedom,Not so free was she, though, to be true,But, oh, the dainty and shy little lambWell her master's voice she knew.
'Twas vain for the Squire the story to tellOf his riches and high descent,As it fell into one rosy shell of an earOut of its mate it went;How one grim old ancestor into the landWith William the Conqueror came,She thought, the sweet, of a conquerorShe knew with that very name.
So in this tender conflictThe great man was forced to yieldTo the handsome, sunburnt ploughmanWho sowed and reaped in his field;For vainly he poured out his glittering gifts,Vainly he plead and besought,Her heart was a tender and soft little heart,But it was not a heart to be bought.
So strange a thing I warrant youHappens not every day,That the pride that had thriven for centuriesOne slight little maiden should slay;Why the proud Squire's Roman featuresQuivered and burned with shame,And the picture of his grim ancestorBlushed in its antique frame.
Were this a romance, an idle tale,The Squire would sicken and die,Slain by the pitiless cruelty,Of her dark and dazzling eye;And she in some shadowy conventWould bow her beautiful head,But the hand that should have told penitent beadsWore a plain gold ring instead.
And he, not twice had his oak trees bloomedEre he wedded a lady grand,Whose tall and towering family tree,Had for ages darkened the land;'Twas a famous genealogical tree,With no modernly thrifty shoots,But a tree with a sap of royaltyEncrusting its mossy old roots.
This leaf he plucked from the outmost twigWas somewhat withered, 'tis true,Long years had flown since it lightly dancedTo the summer air and the dew;Not much of a dowry brought she,In beauty or vulgar pelf,But she had two or three ancestorsMore than the Squire himself.
'Twas much to muse o'er their musty names,And to think that his children's brainsShould be moved by the sanguine current,That had flown through such ancient veins;But I think, sometimes, in his secret heart,The Squire breathed woeful sighsFor the fresh sweet face of the little maid,With the dark and wonderful eyes.
But she, no bird ever sang such songsTo its mate from contented nest,As this wee waiting wife, when the twilightWas treading the glorious west;As she looked through the clustering roses,For the manly form that would comeUp through the cool green evening fieldsTo this sweet little wife and home.
She could see the great stone mansionTowering over the oaks' dark green,And the lawn like emerald velvet,Fit for the feet of a queen;But round this brown-eyed princess,Did Love his ermine fold,Queen was she of a richer realm,She had dearer wealth than gold.
She sat in the cottage door, and the fair June moon looked downOn a face as pure as its own, an innocent face and sweetAs the roses dewy white that grow so thick at her feet,White royal roses, fit for a monarch's crown.
And one is clasped in her slender hand, and one on her bosom lies,And two rare blushing buds loop up her light brown hair,Ah, roses of June, you never looked on a face so white and fair,Such perfectly moulded lips, such sweet and heavenly eyes.
This low-walled home is dear to her, she has come to it to-dayFrom the lordly groves of her palace home afar,But not to stay; there's a light on her brow like the lightof a star,And her eyes are looking beyond the earth, far, far away.
She was born in this cottage home, the sweetest rosebud of spring,And grew with its flowers, the fairest blossom of all,Till her friends ambitiously said she would gracethe kingliest hall,And flattery breathed on her ear its passionate whispering.
A man of riches and taste saw the maiden's face,And thought her beauty would grace his stately southern home,So he took her there, with pictures from France, andstatues from Rome,And marvellous works of art from many an ancient place.
He decked her in costly attire, and showed her beauty with prideAs for sympathy and love, what need of these had she?He had placed her amidst the choicest treasures of land and sea,His marble Hebe never complained, and why should his bride?
He had polished the beautiful unknown gem and set it in gold,He had given her his name and his wealth, what morecould she ask?When all other gifts were hers, it were surely an easy taskHer pleading spirit's restless wings to fold.
The wise world called her blest, so heart be still,She had beauty, and splendor, and youth, and a husbandcalmly kind,And crowds of flattering friends her lofty mansion lined,And dark-browed slaves awaited her queenly will.
Why should she dream of the past, of the days of old,Of her childhood home, and more oft of the home of the dead,Of the grave where she went alone the night before she was wed,And knelt, with her pure cheek pressed to the marble cold?
It was not sin, she said, that those eyes of darkest blueHaunted her dreams more wildly from day to day,Since they looked on Heaven now, and she was so far away,She could love the dead and still be to the living true.
She could think of him, the one who loved her best,Of him who true had been if all the world deceived,Who felt all grief with her when she was grieved,And shared each joy that thrilled her girlish breast.
It was not sin that she heard that voice, gentle and deep,And the echo of a name—it was cut in marble now—So it was not sin, she said, as she breathed it lowIn the midnight hour when all but she were asleep.
But she wearier grew of pride and pomp, like a home sick childshe pined,And paler grew her cheek, as worn with a wearing pain,She said the fresh free country air would seem so sweet again,So she went to her childhood home, as a pilgrim goes to a shrine,
And she looked down the orchard path and the meadow's clover bloom;She stood by the stone-walled well that had mirrored her facewhen a child,She saw where the robins built, and her roses clambered wild,And lingered lost in thought in each low and rustic room.
And she sat in the cottage door while the fair June moonlooked downOn a face as pure as its own, an innocent face, and sweetAs the roses wet with dew that grew so thick at her feet,White, royal roses, fit for a monarch's crown.
But at night, when silence and sleep on the lonely hamlet fellLike a spirit clad in white through the graveyard gateshe passed,And the stars bent down to hear, "I have come to you, love,at last,"While through the valley solemnly sounded the midnight bell.
And her southern birds will wait her coming in vain,Their starry eyes impatiently pierce the palm-trees' shade,And her roses droop in their bowers, alone they'll witherand fade.Roses of June you are gone, but we know you will blossom again.
Who falsely called thee destroyer, still white Angel of Death?Oh not a destroyer here, but a kind restorer, thou,For the guilty look is gone, died out with her failing breath,And the sinless peace of a babe has come to lip and brow.
Drowned in the heaving tide with her life, is her burden of woe,The dreary weight of sin, the woeful, troublesome years,The cold pure touch of the water has washed the shame from her browLeaving a calm immortal, that looks like the chrism of peace.
I fancy her smile was like this, as she pulled at her mother's gownDrawing her out with childish fingers to watchthe red of the skiesOn the old brown doorstep of home, while the peaceful sunwent down,With her mother's hand on her brow, and the glow of the westin her eyes.
"An outcast vile and lost," you say, yes, she went astray,Astray, when the crimson wine of life ran fresh and wild,With mother's tender hand no more on her brow, put awayThe grasses beneath, and she was alone and almost a child.
Like a kid decoyed to its death, the stealthy panther lures,Mocking the voice of its dam, thus he led the innocent childThrough her tenderness down to ruin, he is a friend of yours,And admired by all; as you say, "men will be wild."
But I wonder if God, so far above on His great white throneThe clanging tumult of trouble and doubt that mortals vex;When the murmur of a crime sweeps up from earth with woeful moan,If He pauses, ere He condemns, to ask the offender's sex.
And if so, whether the weaker or stronger He blames the most,The tempter or tempted a tithe of His tender compassion claims,Whether the selfish or too unselfish, those who through loveor lust are lost,He in His infinite wisdom and mercy most condemns.
Frown not, I know her evil our womanly nature shuns,Turns from, with shuddering horror; but now so low is her headFor God's sake, woman, remember your own little onesLying safely at home in their snow-white sheltered bed.
Your own little girls, for them does the flame of your anger burn,"Such creatures will draw down innocence into guilt and woe."I think from eternity vast she will scarcely returnTo entice them to sin, you can safely forgive her now.
"You will not countenance wrong, but fiercely war for the rightEven unto the bitter death." Very good, you should do so,But, my friend, if your own secret thought had blossomed to lightIn temptation, you might have been in this outcast's place,you know.
So let us be pitiful, grateful that God's strong handHas held our own, and the tale of a woman's despairAnd penitent sin, He stooped and wrote in the perishing sand;We carve the record in stone, weak, sinful souls that we are.
In the arms of the kind all-mother, but closeto the sorrowful wave,With its voice no longer moaning to her a despairing call,But a dirge deploring and deep; we will make her grave,With healing grasses above her, and God over all.