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The dim red morn had died, her journey done,

And with dead lips smiled at the twilight plain, Half-fall'n across the threshold of the sun,

Never to rise again.

There was no motion in the dumb dead air,
Not any song of bird or sound of rill;
Gross darkness of the inner sepulchre
Is not so deadly still

As that wide forest. Growths of jasmine turn'd
Their

at mad arms festooning tree to tree,

And at the root thro' lush green grasses burn'd
The red anemone.

I knew the flowers, I knew the leaves, I knew
The tearful glimmer of the languid dawn
On those long, rank, dark wood-walks drench'd in dew,
Leading from lawn to lawn.

The smell of violets, hidden in the green,

Pour'd back into my empty soul and frame The times when I remember to have been Joyful and free from blame.

And from within me a clear under-tone

Thrill'd thro' mine ears in that unblissful clime "Pass freely thro': the wood is all thine own, Until the end of time."

At length I saw a lady within call,

Stiller than chisell'd marble, standing there;

A daughter of the gods, divinely tall,
And most divinely fair.

Her loveliness with shame and with surprise.

Froze my

swift speech: she turning on my face

The star-like sorrows of immortal eyes,

Spoke slowly in her place.

"I had great beauty: ask thou not my name:
No one can be more wise than destiny.
Many drew swords and died. Where'er I came
I brought calamity."

"No marvel, sovereign lady: in fair field

Myself for such a face had boldly died,"

I answer'd free; and turning I appeal'd
To one that stood beside.

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But she, with sick and scornful looks averse,

To her full height her stately stature draws; "My youth," she said, "was blasted with a curse : This woman was the cause.

"I was cut off from hope in that sad place,

Which yet to name my spirit loathes and fears:
My father held his hand upon his face;

I, blinded with my tears,

"Still strove to speak: my voice was thick with sighs
As in a dream. Dimly I could descry

The stern black-bearded kings with wolfish eyes,
Waiting to see me die.

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"The high masts flicker'd as they lay afloat;

The crowds, the temples, waver'd, and the shore;
The bright death quiver'd at the victim's throat;"
Touch'd; and I knew no more.
Stainly

and

munes,

Whereto the other with a downward brow:

"I would the white cold heavy-plunging foam,
Whirl'd by the wind, had roll'd me deep below,
Then when I left my home."

Her slow full words sank thro' the silence drear,
As thunder-drops fall on a sleeping sea:
Sudden I heard a voice that cried, "Come here,
That I may look on thee."

I turning saw, throned on a flowery rise,

One sitting on a crimson scarf unroll'd;

A queen, with swarthy cheeks and bold black eyes,
Brow-bound with burning gold.

She, flashing forth a haughty smile, began:

All moods.

I govern'd men by change, and so I sway'd
'Tis long since I have seen a man.
Once, like the moon, I made

"The ever-shifting currents of the blood
According to my humour ebb and flow.
I have no men to govern in this wood:
That makes my only woe.

"Nay-yet it chafes me that I could not bend

One will; nor tame and tutor with mine eye
That dull cold-blooded Cæsar. Prythee, friend,
Where is Mark Antony?

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"The man, my lover, with whom I rode sublime On Fortune's neck: we sat as God by God: The Nilus would have risen before his time

And flooded at our nod.

"We drank the Libyan Sun to sleep, and lit

Lamps which outburn'd Canopus. O my life

In Egypt! O the dalliance and the wit,

The flattery and the strife,

Were dainty th

And the wild kiss, when fresh from war's alarms,
My Hercules, my Roman Antony,

My mailed Bacchus leapt into my arms, indontented there to die!

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And there he died: and when

heard

my name Sigh'd forth with life, I would not brook my fear Of the other with a worm I balk'd his fame. a What else was left? look here!"

(With that she tore her robe apart, and half The polish'd argent of her breast to sight Thereto she pointed with a laugh,

Laid bare.

Showing the aspick's bite)

"I died a Queen. The Roman soldier found
Me lying dead, my crown about my brows,
A name for ever!-lying robed and crown'd,
Worthy a Roman spouse.”

Her warbling yoice, a lyre of widest range

Repla Waiters Ju

all fram.

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Struck by all passion, did fall down and glance
From tone to tone, and glided thro' all change
Of liveliest utterance.

When she made pause I knew not for delight;

Because with sudden motion from the ground
She raised her piercing orbs, and fill'd with light
The interval of sound.

Still with their fires Love tipt his keenest darts;
As once they drew into two burning rings
All beams of Love, melting the mighty hearts
Of captains and of kings.

Slowly my sense undazzled.

Then I heard

A noise of some one coming thro' the lawn, And singing clearer than the crested bird,

That claps his wings at dawn.

"The torrent brooks of hallow'd Israel

From craggy hollows pouring, late and soon, Sound all night long, in falling thro' the dell,

Far-heard beneath the moon.

"The balmy moon of blessed Israel

Floods all the deep-blue gloom with beams divine:
All night the splinter'd crags that wall the dell
With spires of silver shine."

As one that museth where broad sunshine laves
The lawn by some cathedral, thro' the door
Hearing the holy organ rolling waves

Of sound on roof and floor

Within, and anthem sung, is charm'd and tied

To where he stands,—so stood I, when that flow

Of music left the lips of her that died

To save her father's vow;

The daughter of the warrior Gileadite,

A maiden pure; as when she went along From Mizpeh's tower'd gate with welcome light, With timbrel and with song.

My words leapt forth: "Heaven heads the count of crimes With that wild oath." She render'd answer high:

"Not so, nor once alone; a thousand times

I would be born and die.

"Single I grew, like some green plant, whose root
Creeps to the garden water-pipes beneath,
Feeding the flower; but ere my flower to fruit
Changed, I was ripe for death.

"My God, my land, my father-these did move
Me from my bliss of life, that Nature gave,
Lower'd softly with a threefold cord of love
Down to a silent grave.

"And I went mourning, 'No fair Hebrew boy
Shall smile away my maiden blame among
The Hebrew mothers '-emptied of all joy,
Leaving the dance and song,

"Leaving the olive-gardens far below,

Leaving the promise of my bridal bower, The valleys of grape-loaded vines that glow Beneath the battled tower.

"The light white cloud swam over us.

Anon

We heard the lion roaring from his den; We saw the large white stars rise one by one, Or, from the darken'd glen,

"Saw God divide the night with flying flame,
And thunder on the everlasting hills.

I heard Him, for He spake, and grief became
A solemn scorn of ills.

"When the next moon was roll'd into the sky,
Strength came to me that equall'd my desire.
How beautiful a thing it was to die

For God and for my sire!

"It comforts me in this one thought to dwell,
That I subdued me to my father's will;
Because the kiss he gave me, ere I fell,
Sweetens the spirit still.

"Moreover it is written that my race

Hew'd Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer
On Arnon unto Minneth." Here her face
Glow'd, as I look'd at her.

She lock'd her lips: she left me where I stood:
"Glory to God," she sang, and past afar,
Thridding the sombre boskage of the wood,
Toward the morning-star.

Losing her carol I stood pensively,

As one that from a casement leans his head, When midnight bells cease ringing suddenly, And the old year is dead.

"Alas! alas!" a low voice, full of care,

Murmur'd beside me : "Turn and look on me : I am that Rosamond, whom men call fair,

If what I was I be.

"Would I had been some maiden coarse and poor! O me, that I should ever see the light!

Those dragon eyes of anger'd Eleanor

Do hunt me, day and night."

She ceased in tears, fallen from hope and trust:

To whom the Egyptian: "O, you tamely died! You should have clung to Fulvia's waist, and thrust The dagger thro' her side."

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