Soft stealing through the shade, and skirting swift
The walls of Paradise, through night’s dark rift
Lilith fled far; nor stopped lest deadly snare
Or peril by the wayside lurked.
The air
Grew chill. Loud beat her heart, as through the wind
Echoed, unseen, pursuing feet, behind.

Adown the pathway of the mist she passed,
And reached a weird, strange land at last.
When morning flecked the dappled sky with red,
And odors sweet from waking flowers were shed,
Lilith beheld a plain, outstretching wide,
With distant mountains seamed.
Afar, a silvery tide
The blue shore kissed. And in that tropic glow
Dim islands shone, palm-fringed, and low.
In nearer space, like scarlet arrows flew
Strange birds, or ’mong the reedy fens, or through
Tall trees, of unknown leafage, glancing, went.
Now Lilith seaward passed, and stooping, bent
Her hollowed hand above the wave, and quaffed;
For she was spent with wanderings wide. Loud laughed
She then, beholding on that silent shore
Rare shells, that still faint in their pink lips bore
Wild ocean-songs; and precious stones, that bright
That dim sea’s marge, deep in the land of night
Thick strewed.
Then glad, she lifted shining eyes,
Loud crying there, “O Lilith, now arise,
Great queen-triumphant! See how wildly fair
Before me lies my realm! And from its air
Soft, sensuous, new life as ruddy wine,
My spirit drinks. Nor beauty so divine
Hath Eden’s self. Look, where upon the sands
The garish mosses spread with dainty hands,
Like goblin network fine, each fairy frond.
And dusky trees shut in broad fields beyond,
And hang long trembling garlands, age-grown-gray,
From topmost boughs adown, athwart the day;
And sweet amid these wilds, bright dewy bells
Ring summer chimes. And soft in fragrant dells,
’Mong tender leaves, great spikes of scarlet flaunt
About the pools—the errant wild bees’ haunt—
And thick with bramble-blooms pink petals starred,
And dew-stained buds of blue, the velvet sward.
Scarce ripple stirred the sea; and inland wend
Far bays and sedgy ponds; and rolling rivers bend.
A land of leaf and fruitage in the glow
Of palest glamours steeped. And far and low
Great purple isles; and further still a rim
Of sunset-tinted hills, that softly dim
Shine ’gainst the day. “O world, new found,” she said,
“With treasures heaped and odors rare, ’mong flowers shed,
For whose dear sake I came o’er flinty ways,
And paths with danger fraught; ’mong brambly sprays,
With bleeding feet, and shoulders thorn-pierced deep.
But perils past, fade fast. And I will weep
My Eden lost no more.” And sweet and low
As one who dreams, she said, “For now I know
These mountain heights, these level plains, are mine.”
She ceased, and inland quickly turned. “Fair shine
Strange fruits thick-set, or blossoms lightly tossed
Low at my feet.” Therewith, a dusk globe, crossed
With golden bands, from bent boughs, stripped she. Through
The gleaming sphere its nectrous juices drew,
And thirsting cried—as one grown drunken: “Mine
These fruits unknown, in thorny combs that shine,
Or gray-green spikes that glow, dull on the sands.
Fain would I pluck, out-reaching eager hands,
Save that a marvel grows of ruddier rind
Out-flinging fruity breath upon the wind,
Beneath harsh spines half-hid. Nor drains
My wilful spouse such nectars fine. Nor gains
His patient care the fruitage rare, these plains
That heaps unheeded. Nay, nor bearded grains
Golding this goodly land, where Lilith reigns.”

So passed the glad years on, and o’er her home—
Its woods and mountains, its clear streams—to roam,
She loved. The inmost throb of Nature’s heart
She felt amid the grass. Each daintiest part
Of Nature’s work she knew; each gain, each loss.
And reverent watched on high the starry cross
Gleaming, mute symbol in that southern dome
Of One—the Promised One—of days to come.

The rifted sea-shell on the shingly beach
She scanned, pitying each inmate gone. Each
Named. ’Mong beetling crags, the sea-bird’s home,
Light-footed, went. Or, idly, in the foam
Under the cocoa-palms, her fingers dipped,
Much marveling to see where featly slipped
Beneath the waves scaled creatures, crimson-dyed
Or luminous: Barred-yellow, purple pied,
Rose-tinted, opaline, or dight with stain,
Rich as the rainbow streaks, when through the rain
The Sun’s kiss falls. Much wondered she when bright
By sedgy pools, flamingoes stalked. And light
The startled ostrich bent his headlong flight
O’er desert bare. And on the woody height
Trooped zebras, velvet-brown. The date’s green crest
Beneath, the peaceful camels lay at rest.
And slender-straight camelopards the boughs
Down-drew, the lush-green leaves thereon to browse.
Or oft ’mong oozy bogs, or through the fens,
Fearless she went, when low, ’mong reedy dens
The water-courses by, huge creatures slept,
Or in the jungles spotted panthers crept,
And in the thickets deadly serpents wound
Like blossomed wreaths, their coils upon the ground.
All forms of life she saw; with tenderest care
Uplifting humblest sprays, or blooms most rare.
Pierced the deep heart of Nature’s subtlest lore,
Touched highest knowledge, probed the inmost core

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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