  The broken moon lay in the autumn sky, And I lay at thy feet; You bent above me; in the silence I Could hear my wild heart beat. I spoke; my soul was full of trembling fears At what my words would bring: You raised your face, your eyes were full of tears, As the sweet eyes of Spring. You kissed me then, I worshipped at thy feet Upon the shadowy sod. Oh, fool, I loved thee! loved thee, lovely cheat! My soul leaped up beneath thy timid kiss: What then to me were groans, Or pain, or death? Earth was a round of bliss, I seemed to walk on thrones. And you were with me 'mong the rushing wheels, 'Mid Trade's tumultuous jars; And where to awe-struck wilds the Night reveals Her hollow gulfs of stars. Before your window, as before a shrine, I've knelt 'mong dew-soaked flowers, While distant music-bells, with voices fine, Measured the midnight hours. There came a fearful moment: I was pale, You wept, and never spoke, But clung around me as the woodbine frail Upon my wrong I steadied up my soul, And flung thee from myself; I spurned thy love as 'twere a rich man's dole,— It was my only wealth. I spurned thee! I, who loved thee, could have died, That hoped to call thee "wife," And bear thee, gently-smiling at my side, Through all the shocks of life! Too late, thy fatal beauty and thy tears, Thy vows, thy passionate breath; I'll meet thee not in Life, nor in the spheres Made visible by Death. |
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