Wide through her realm she walked, and glad or lorn
She mused. So, loitering, it chanced one morn
When lone she sat upon a mountain height,
One sudden stood anear, whose dark eyes bright
Upon her shone. Pallid his face, and red
His smileless lips. “Who art thou?” Lilith said,
And faint a hidden pain her hot heart stirred,
When low, and rarely sweet, his voice she heard.
She looked, half-pleased—and half in strange surprise
Shrank ’neath the gaze of those wild, starry eyes.
“Oh, dame,” the stranger said, “where waters leap
Bright glancing down, I rested oft, where steep
Thy Eden o’er, bare-browed, a peak uprose.
Naught craving bloom or fruitage—nay, nor those
Frail joys Adam holds dear. One only boon
I sought of all his heritage. Fair ’neath the moon
I saw thee stand; and all about thy feet
The night her perfume spilled, soft incense meet.
Then low I sighed, when grew thy beauty on my sight,
‘Some comfort yet remains, if that I might
From Adam pluck this perfect flower. Some morn—
If I (some dreamed-of morn, perchance slow-born)
This flawless bloom, white, fragrant, lustrous, pure
For ever on my breast might hold secure.’
Yea, for thy love, through darkling realms of night
I followed thee, sharing thy fearful flight
Unseen. Lo, when thy timid heart, behind
Heard echoing phantom feet upon the wind,
’Twas I, pursuing o’er the day’s last brink;
Wherefore, I now am here. O Lilith, think
How over-much I love thee, and how sweet
Were life with thee! O weary naked feet,
With me each onward path wilt thou not tread?
Or, if thou endest here thy quest,” he said,
“Let me too bide with thee.”
Made answer low
Lilith thereto: “Meseems not long ago
One stood at Eden’s gate like thee. But thy face
Is darker, red thy lips. Of kingly race
I know thee. Say, whence comest thou, O prince?”
“Nay, then,” he sighed, “an outcast I, long since
From Heaven thrust out; yet now, the curse is past,
Nor mourn I Heaven lost, if at the last
Thy love I win. Yea, where thou art, I know
Is Heaven. And bliss, in sooth” (oh, soft and low,
He said), “lives ever in thy smile.”
His speech
Thus ended. And toward the sandy beach
He passed. Though long her eyes the stranger sought
Where curved the distant shore, she saw him not.

Soft through the trees the mottled shadows dropped
When Lilith in her pleasance sat. Half-propped
’Gainst mossy trunk her slender length. Her hair
In sunny web, enmeshed her elbows bare.
Slowly the breeze swayed the mimosas slight
As Eblis pushed aside the bent boughs light.
“O dame,” he said, “it seemeth surely meet
Earth’s richest gifts to lay at Lilith’s feet;
Therefore I said ‘unto the fairest one,
Things loveliest beneath the shining sun
I bring.’ Since of all crafts in this young earth
I am true master, unto her whose worth
So much deserves, I bear this marble sphere,
Whose hollowed husk, well polished, gleaming clear,
Hides rarest fruit.” Therewith the globe he showed,
The half whereof smooth-sparkling was: Half glowed
With carven work; embossed with pale leaves light,
And delicately sculptured birds in flight,
And clustered flowers frail. Lilith drew near
With beaming eyes, and laid the graven sphere
Against her smiling lips; o’ertraced the vine
That circled it with fingers slim. “Mine, mine
Is it, O prince?” she cried. “I know not why
Its beauty doth recall the winds’ long sigh
That surged among the palms. Methinks is dead
Some summer-tide, that in its own sweet stead
Hath left upon the stone its imaging.”
Eblis replied: “On earth, is anything
More fair? If such thou knowest, Lilith, speak.
That I, for thee, surely would straightway seek.
Say, if indeed thou findest anywhere,
On land or sea, created things so rare?”
And Lilith answered, “On this earth so round,
Naught else so lovely anywhere I found.
So shames it meaner work—so had I said—
But see yon nodding palm that droops its head
Low sighing o’er the wave. Bring me a bough
So feathery-fine. Turn thy white sphere! Now
On its cold, fair surface, Eblis, canst thou
Such branches carve, or tender fronds, that we
Bright waving on the cocoa, these may see?”
And Eblis wrought till grew upon the stone
Such airy boughs as on the cocoa shone.
Then Lilith cried: “Skilled craftsman, proven thou!
Didst thou, then, make my cocoa-tree? Thy bough
Pale graven give the grace of its green crown
When through it night winds gently slip adown.
No charm of color, nor of change, nor glow
Of blue noon sky, thy carven work doth show;
Let dusk bees visit it—or sip the breath
From thy chill marble buds.” Then, Lilith saith,
“Eblis hath wroughten noblest on this earth.”
He answered quick, “Poor bauble, little worth
To Lilith! Ope thy slighted husk, reveal
The miracle thy rough rind doth conceal!”

He touched a hidden spring, and wide apart
The riven sphere showed its white hollow heart,
And in the midst a gem; the which he laid
Within her hand. “Behold,” he said, “I made
Most fair for thee this lustrous blood-red sard,
And deftly traced its gleaming surface hard
With carvings thick of bright acacias lass="i0">The crown of clustered worlds thou mayest find,
If thou with him who loveth thee wilt bind
Thy life.” “Nay, far happier seems to me
Than eagle caged, the wild lark soaring free,”
She said. And through her rose-pleached alleys strayed
They to the sea. And tender music made
That guileful voice; yet slow his wooing sped
Those summer days. But when were dead
And brown the crisping leaves, “Oh, love,” he said,
“Of all the centuries, thou rarest bloom,
Thy shut heart open wide. Its sweet perfume,
Though I should die, fain would I parting drink.
Sleeps yet thy love? From me no longer shrink,
My Lilith. Oh, lift up thy tender eyes;
In their blue depths doth happy morning rise;
’Tis night if they be closed.”
She softly sighed;
And ancient strife recalling, thus replied:
“When dwelt a prince discrowned, well satisfied?
And fallen, loving, still art thou a prince,
And otherwhiles might sorrow bring me, since
It might hap thou wouldst much desire her realm,
Were Lilith thine; for princes seize the helm
When Love lies moored, and bid the shallop seek
Across the waves new lands. But Love is weak,
And so, alas, the craft upon the sands
Is dashed, while one, on-looking, wrings her hands.
Such days I have outlived. Like Adam, thou
Perchance will seek to bind the loosed. Then how
(If one hath drunken wine of liberty)
Shall she, athirst, rejoice; no longer free,
Be glad?”
“My love,” he said, “large-hearted lives,
Full dowers thee, and royal bounty gives,
Nor knoweth law, save Lilith’s wish alone.”
“Why, then,” she answered, “on the polished stone
That fronts yon hill, write, Eblis, in full day,
That other time we read it clear, and say,
‘Hereon are graven all those early vows
We whispered low aneath the summer boughs,’
Write every word. That so the stone shall be
Ever a witness mute twixt thee and me.
Then shall I know thou seekest in me no thrall
For after-days, if thou make compact. All
Thou hast said, write now.”
Then on the stone,
As she had said, graved Eblis, and thereon
Did set his seal. So wedded they: and hand
In hand the wide world roamed. Or in her land
Abode. And oft, of hours, ere yet on earth
He walked, she questioned. Or he loosed with mirth
Her yellow hair, down-streaming o’er his arm;
And ’gainst his cheek her breath came sweet and warm;
As through his dusky locks caressing played
Her fingers slim; and shadows, half afraid,
She saw in his wild eyes.
Or paths remote
They trod, watching the white clouds rise and float
Athwart the sky. Or by the listless main,
Or ’neath the lotus bough, slow paced the twain.
Or dragon-trees spread their cool leafy screen.
And faint crept odors through the mangroves green,
Where paused the pair upon the sandy shore.
Love-tranced, unheeded, swiftly passed them o’er
Glad summer days: till one hour softly laid
At Lilith’s feet a fair, lone babe, that strayed
From distant Dreamland far. So might one deem
That looked upon its face. Or, it might seem
From other climes, a rose-leaf blown apart,
Down-fluttered there, to gladden Lilith’s heart.