  IWhat is sweeter, sweet, than you? Not the fairy dew Of these bee-sipped pastures where Time, unsandalled, unaware, Rests him ere he tire. Shall I his forgotten hour Strike for thee? Fatefully, Lift the wand that wakes Woman in the flower? Then o'er dream's horizon breaks Rose of other fire; From a world more sweet Rival rise the fragrant floods; Breath that makes Thy morning meadows dun, Mutes their dew-bells, misty hoods Every leaf that shone; Twinkling to be gone; Down the ways and up the ways, Hope-fleet, trampling care As curling buds, Iris goal joy-near; Then a-creep on praying knees, Frail shoulders bent to bear Heaven's falling sphere. Ah, not yet, heart's wonder! A little hour we'll stay, And thou wilt give me grace of dawn For travelled, dusk array. This gown of mottled years, By noon and gnome-light spun, Enchant me to surrender To Ariel ministers; Here poised with thee before Thy summer world's wide door, And glory that is hers; This soft, unclamorous sky That makes a lotus ship of every eye Drifts down, a wing's caress On billowed field and climbing shore Whose veiny tidelets beat and cling, Bloom-labouring, Invincibly sweet and far, Up looming cone and scaur, And clambering spill To lap of ledge and aproned hill The heaped and whispering greenery Of beauty's burden that unburdens me! And thou, the fairest thing In this fair shaman-ring, Shall my sore magic loose thee wandering? Has Life such faltering need, Mid outlands where she runs, She cannot reach the suns Save thou dost bleed? Shall she go fleet, With heart of stouter cheer, Because thou givest her Thy little, bruisÈd feet? Heaven must not ban thee shining so! Why shouldst thou laden bow, And climb, and slip, and toil, And blanch thy cheek to keep thy soul as white, Inviolate as now? O, we have dreams we shall not put away Till earth be fair as they; When all this work-night coil Shall be unwound by wizard fingers bright That send our own to play; And wisdom, wiser than we know, shall find The birth trail to the mind; Nor spirit waver, panting here and yon Seeking sun-vantage, for all heights are won. Shall not we then be as the flowers, Drinking dew dowers As now thou dost? Glad petals that unclose About Life's heart,—at last the perfect Rose? Sweet, I will trust Love and the morn; Fold here the wakeful wand, Of blossomy sleep. Who knows but thou hast won the steep By silent, angel way, Hidden and heavenly, That leaves no trace of thorn? Star-flower, keep thy sky; If man must climb, let him go up to thee; A daisy may be nearer God than he— Than I. IIWhat crime was hers, that she lies hushed, Dead with the price, while you and I, With lifted head, walk sinless by? Pause then,—but spare That easy tear; the tale I'll bare. Mid stones that pushed Her eager life back, grudged her room For root without one bloom, There strangely blushed As yours and mine, But vague, and veiled, and few; She hardly knew their names, but felt the stir That filled her heart with whispers as they grew, And knew that life lay in them, life for her. When Hunger came she turned her breast And let him feed. Cold followed, gripped Her veins and sipped The thin blood thinner; both she pressed As close as lovers, lest A darker fiend might creep within Her empty arms; lest she might buy, With one swift hour of sin, A poisoned ease from tooth of need,— A little food, a little fire, and die; And she had dreams to shelter, little dreams to feed. Oh, unresisting dumb! In wide earth's harvest-gold She asked no share, If in the dust a crumb Might be for her; One hour's undriven sleep,— But one hour more, Safe from the Want that pried Her thin and shaken door,— That hour the shivering dawn denied With scream that cut life through, And made her wretched pillow seem a rose Her clinging cheek would keep In soft, ungoaded death! And ah, suppose A few more pence the day Were richly hers, to make youth gay With ribbon or a flower ere it flew! (So soon toil's wrinkles come!) Then would she make her dreams a fairer home; Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Original spellings have been retained. |
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