| I WAS not with the rest at play; | |
| My brothers laughed in joyous mood: | |
| But I—I wandered far away | |
| Into the fair and silent wood; | |
| And with the trees and flowers I stood, | 5 |
| As dumb and full of dreams as they: | |
| —For One it seemed my whole heart knew, | |
| Or One my heart had known long since, | |
| Was peeping at me through the dew; | |
| And with bright laughter seemed to woo | 10 |
| My beauty, like a Fairy prince. | |
| |
| Oh, what a soft enchantment filled | |
| The lonely paths and places dim! | |
| It was as though the whole wood thrilled, | |
| And a dumb joy, because of him, | 15 |
| Weighed down the lilies tall and slim, | |
| And made the roses blush, and stilled | |
| The great wild voices in half fear: | |
| It was as though his smile did hold | |
| All things in trances manifold; | 20 |
| And in each place as he drew near | |
| The leaves were touched and turned to gold… | |
| |
| But more and more he seemed to seek | |
| My heart: till, dreaming of all this, | |
| I thought one day to hear him speak, | 25 |
| Or feel, indeed, his sudden kiss | |
| Bind me to some great unknown bliss: | |
| Then there would stay upon my cheek | |
| Full many a light and honied stain, | |
| That told indeed how I had lain | 30 |
| Deep in the flowery banks all day; | |
| And round me too there would remain | |
| Some strange wood-blossom’s scent alway.… | |
| |
| —O, the incomparable love | |
| Of him, my Lover!—O, to tell | 35 |
| Its way and measure were above | |
| The throbbing chords of speech that swell | |
| Within me!—Doth it not excel | |
| All other, sung or written of? | |
| Yea now, O all ye fair mankind— | 40 |
| Consider well the gracious line | |
| Of those your lovers; call to mind | |
| Their love of you, and ye shall find | |
| Not one among them all like mine. | |
| |
| It seems as though, from calm to calm, | 45 |
| A whole fair age had passed me by, | |
| Since first this Lover, through a charm | |
| Of flowers, wooed so tenderly, | |
| I had no fear of drawing nigh, | |
| Nor knew, indeed, that—with an arm | 50 |
| Closed round and holding me—he led | |
| My eager way from sight to sight | |
| Of all the summer magic—right | |
| To where himself had surely spread | |
| Some pleasant snare for my delight. | 55 |
| |
| And now, in an eternal sphere, | |
| Beneath one flooding look of his— | |
| Wherein, all beautiful and dear, | |
| That endless melting gold that is | |
| His love, with flawless memories | 60 |
| Grows ever richer and more clear— | |
| My life seems held, as some faint star | |
| Beneath its sun: and through the far | |
| Celestial distances for miles, | |
| To where vast mirage futures are, | 65 |
| I trace the gilding of his smiles.… | |
| |
| For, one by one, e’en as I rise, | |
| And feel the pure Ethereal | |
| Refining all before my eyes: | |
| Whole beauteous worlds material | 70 |
| Are seen to enter gradual | |
| The great transparent paradise | |
| Of this my dream; and, all revealed, | |
| To break upon me more and more | |
| Their inward singing souls, and yield | 75 |
| A wondrous secret half concealed | |
| In all their loveliness before. | |
| |
| And so, when, through unmeasured days, | |
| The far effulgence of the sea | |
| Is holding me in long amaze, | 80 |
| And stealing with strange ecstasy | |
| My heart all opened silently;— | |
| There reach me, from among the sprays, | |
| Ineffable faint words that sing | |
| Within me,—how, for me alone, | 85 |
| One who is lover—who is King, | |
| Hath dropt, as ’twere a precious stone, | |
| That sea—a symbol of his throne.… | |
| |
| And, through the long charmed solitude | |
| Of throbbing moments, whose strong link | 90 |
| Is one delicious hope pursued | |
| From trance to trance, the while I think | |
| And know myself upon the brink | |
| Of His eternal kiss,—endued | |
| With part of him, the very wind | 95 |
| Hath power to ravish me in sips | |
| Or long mad wooings that unbind | |
| My hair,—wherein I truly find | |
| The magic of his unseen lips. | |
| |
| And, so almighty is the thrill | 100 |
| I feel at many a faintest breath | |
| Or stir of sound—as ’twere a rill | |
| Of joy traversing me, or death | |
| Dissolving all that hindereth | |
| My thought from power to fulfil | 105 |
| Some new embodiment of bliss,— | |
| I do consume with the immense | |
| Delight as of some secret kiss, | |
| And am become like one whose sense | |
| Is used with raptures too intense!… | 110 |
| |
| Yea, mystic consummation! yea, | |
| O wondrous suitor,—whosoe’er | |
| Thou art; that in such mighty way, | |
| In distant realms, athwart the air | |
| And lands and seas, with all things fair | 115 |
| Hast wooed me even till this day;— | |
| It seems thou drawest near to me; | |
| Or I, indeed, so nigh to thee, | |
| I catch rare breaths of a delight | |
| From thy most glorious country, see | 120 |
| Its distant glow upon some height.… | |
| |
| O thou my Destiny! O thou | |
| My own—my very Love—my Lord! | |
| Whom from the first day until now | |
| My heart, divining, hath adored | 125 |
| So perfectly it hath abhorred | |
| The tie of each frail human vow— | |
| O I would whisper in thine ear— | |
| Yea, may I not, once, in the clear | |
| Pure night, when, only, silver shod | 130 |
| The angels walk?—thy name, I fear | |
| And love, and tremble saying—GOD! | |
