Goblin Market, The Princes Progress, and Other Poems | Page 8

dead in their prime;?Give me the withered leaves I chose?Before in the old time.
THE HOUR AND THE GHOST
BRIDE
O love, love, hold me fast,?He draws me away from thee;?I cannot stem the blast,?Nor the cold strong sea:?Far away a light shines?Beyond the hills and pines;?It is lit for me.
BRIDEGROOM
I have thee close, my dear,?No terror can come near;?Only far off the northern light shines clear. 10
GHOST
Come with me, fair and false,?To our home, come home.?It is my voice that calls:?Once thou wast not afraid?When I woo'd, and said,?'Come, our nest is newly made'--?Now cross the tossing foam.
BRIDE
Hold me one moment longer,?He taunts me with the past,?His clutch is waxing stronger, 20 Hold me fast, hold me fast.?He draws me from thy heart,?And I cannot withhold:?He bids my spirit depart?With him into the cold:--?Oh bitter vows of old!
BRIDEGROOM
Lean on me, hide thine eyes:?Only ourselves, earth and skies,?Are present here: be wise.
GHOST
Lean on me, come away, 30 I will guide and steady:?Come, for I will not stay:?Come, for house and bed are ready.?Ah, sure bed and house,?For better and worse, for life and death:?Goal won with shortened breath:?Come, crown our vows.
BRIDE
One moment, one more word,?While my heart beats still,?While my breath is stirred 40 By my fainting will.?O friend forsake me not,?Forget not as I forgot:?But keep thy heart for me,?Keep thy faith true and bright;?Through the lone cold winter night?Perhaps I may come to thee.
BRIDEGROOM
Nay peace, my darling, peace:?Let these dreams and terrors cease:?Who spoke of death or change or aught but ease? 50
GHOST
O fair frail sin,?O poor harvest gathered in!?Thou shalt visit him again?To watch his heart grow cold;?To know the gnawing pain?I knew of old;?To see one much more fair?Fill up the vacant chair,?Fill his heart, his children bear:--?While thou and I together 60 In the outcast weather?Toss and howl and spin.
A SUMMER WISH
Live all thy sweet life thro',?Sweet Rose, dew-sprent,?Drop down thine evening dew?To gather it anew?When day is bright:?I fancy thou wast meant?Chiefly to give delight.
Sing in the silent sky,?Glad soaring bird;?Sing out thy notes on high 10 To sunbeam straying by?Or passing cloud;?Heedless if thou art heard?Sing thy full song aloud.
Oh that it were with me?As with the flower;?Blooming on its own tree?For butterfly and bee?Its summer morns:?That I might bloom mine hour 20 A rose in spite of thorns.
Oh that my work were done?As birds' that soar?Rejoicing in the sun:?That when my time is run?And daylight too,?I so might rest once more?Cool with refreshing dew.
AN APPLE GATHERING
I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree?And wore them all that evening in my hair:?Then in due season when I went to see
I found no apples there.
With dangling basket all along the grass?As I had come I went the selfsame track:?My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass
So empty-handed back.
Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,?Their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer; 10 Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky,
Their mother's home was near.
Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,?A stronger hand than hers helped it along;?A voice talked with her through the shadows cool
More sweet to me than song.
Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth?Than apples with their green leaves piled above??I counted rosiest apples on the earth
Of far less worth than love. 20
So once it was with me you stooped to talk?Laughing and listening in this very lane:?To think that by this way we used to walk
We shall not walk again!
I let my neighbours pass me, ones and twos?And groups; the latest said the night grew chill,?And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews
Fell fast I loitered still.
SONG
Two doves upon the selfsame branch,?Two lilies on a single stem,?Two butterflies upon one flower:--?Oh happy they who look on them.
Who look upon them hand in hand?Flushed in the rosy summer light;?Who look upon them hand in hand?And never give a thought to night.
MAUDE CLARE
Out of the church she followed them?With a lofty step and mien:?His bride was like a village maid,?Maude Clare was like a queen.
'Son Thomas,' his lady mother said,?With smiles, almost with tears:?'May Nell and you but live as true?As we have done for years;
'Your father thirty years ago?Had just your tale to tell; 10 But he was not so pale as you,?Nor I so pale as Nell.'
My lord was pale with inward strife,?And Nell was pale with pride;?My lord gazed long on pale Maude Clare?Or ever he kissed the bride.
'Lo, I have brought my gift, my lord,?Have brought my gift,' she said:?'To bless the hearth, to bless the board,?To bless the marriage-bed. 20
'Here's my half of the golden chain?You wore about your neck,?That day we waded ankle-deep?For lilies in the beck:
'Here's my half of the faded leaves?We plucked from budding bough,?With feet amongst the lily leaves,--?The lilies are budding now.'
He strove to match her scorn with scorn,?He faltered in his place: 30 'Lady,'