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, As that wide forest. Growths of jasmine turn'd at mad arms festooning tree to tree, And at the root thro' lush green grasses burn'd I knew the flowers, I knew the leaves, I knew 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, 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 marvel, sovereign lady: in fair field Myself for such a face had boldly died," I answer'd free; and turning I appeal'd 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: I, blinded with my tears, "Still strove to speak: my voice was thick with sighs The stern black-bearded kings with wolfish eyes, "The high masts flicker'd as they lay afloat; The crowds, the temples, waver'd, and the shore; and munes, Whereto the other with a downward brow: "I would the white cold heavy-plunging foam, Her slow full words sank thro' the silence drear, 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, She, flashing forth a haughty smile, began: All moods. I govern'd men by change, and so I sway'd "The ever-shifting currents of the blood "Nay-yet it chafes me that I could not bend One will; nor tame and tutor with mine eye "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 mailed Bacchus leapt into my arms, indontented there to die! ланин 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 Her warbling yoice, a lyre of widest range Repla Waiters Ju all fram. Struck by all passion, did fall down and glance When she made pause I knew not for delight; Because with sudden motion from the ground Still with their fires Love tipt his keenest darts; 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: As one that museth where broad sunshine laves 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 "My God, my land, my father-these did move "And I went mourning, 'No fair Hebrew boy "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, I heard Him, for He spake, and grief became "When the next moon was roll'd into the sky, For God and for my sire! "It comforts me in this one thought to dwell, "Moreover it is written that my race Hew'd Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer She lock'd her lips: she left me where I stood: 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." |