Love or Fame | Page 8

and grief.
Through all my life thou wert its hope and pride,
But
now you turn from that true life aside,
And long to wander as a
willful child,
In other paths, by luring dreams beguiled.
Not so my
love for thee; though e'en the sun
Should disappear, his race of glory
run,
And stars like lost souls wand'ring through the sky,
Should
vanish as that sun; though worlds should die,
And all the purple
clouds should come at eve
And for the earth a robe of mourning
weave,
While to the very skies the seas should roll
In waves of grief
to sweep the heavens' scroll,

It could not change my smallest thought
of thee;
I count a man as naught if he's not free,
Yet willingly for
thy dear sake I'd live
Where all the world my freedom could not give,

If that I knew could save thee from one tear.
Than werefore take
from my thy presence dear?
If thou would'st wear a crown, why leave
this scene?
But stay! I'll crown thee as my love--my queen."

She sadly drew away with troubled mien,
O'er bending face a
heightened color spread,
"You cannot understand me yet," she said,

"I'd rather be a WOMAN than a QUEEN."
Then wistfully she looked
out on the sea,
"I have a gift that God has given me,
I'd use it that
the world should better grow;
I long for fame because I then should
know
My power was felt and recognized--but stay,
My words are
vain, you sadly turn away."
"Choose, Hilda," then once more he proudly cried;
Upon his face
there gleamed a passionate pride;
"Between this love that I now offer
thee
And that vain fame as faithless as the sea.
I give thee deepest
love that man can feel,
Before thine own my heart in truth doth kneel.

Beware how you do mock your early love,
Lest it should die as
some poor tortured dove;
If once 'tis dead your woman's heart my
grieve
Itself to death; return it never will,
And like the sun, a
shadow it may leave
Whose glory, dead and gone, will haunt you
still."
Her eyes were filled with grief, her head bent low,
Upon the shore the
waves crept to and fro,
Their moan was vaguely echoed in her breast

That vainly struggled with its great unrest.
Her heart was throbbing
with the heavy pain
His words had caused; on each fair cheek a stain

Of crimson lay, as that which softly falls
From setting sun on
gleaming marble walls.
It rose unto a glow, then died away
In fitful
gleams; on drooping eyelids lay
A weight, yet 'neath those heavy
veils of snow
The dark eyes quivered with a restless glow.
She could not speak, mute as the rocks that stand
In stony silence
now and evermore,
She stood, while stars looked down from heaven's
shore
And pitied her. Unto his proud command
Her heart had not
yet dared to make reply
Lest in those words a deeper pain should lie.
Impatient grown, he paces to and fro
Upon the rocks, then on the tide
below,

Looks down with troubled frowns and stifled sighs.
As

quick as light across the calm, clear skies,
A meteor flashes down, a
dazzling sight,
Then dies, and all the heavens seem as before.

"Look, Hilda, look! so dies this lamp of night
That once was placed
upon god's starry floor
To give us light, while yet doth gleam each
star
That calmly moves within its own allotted space.
Take warning,
Hilda, fly not from thy place.
Nor seek to wander from thy realm too
far,
Lest in a trackless waste thy soul shall stray,
And as this meteor,
flash and fade away,
While all unmoved the world's calm eyes shall
gaze,
Nor give one tear unto thy shortened days."
Back from her face the waves of crimson rolled,
And left it pale as
death; as flowers unfold
Their dewy depths, to him her liquid eyes

Were gently raised: "Within that symbol lies
Perhaps a truth," she
says, "I dare not say,
Yet, Adrian, it cannot matter now,
Determined
is my heart; upon my brow
A crown will rest that will not fade away.

Oh! seek not in my sorely troubled breast
To rouse again its
strength of dark unrest;
For better were my heart in torture wrung

Than linger here and leave its song unsung."
With sad, sad eyes he looked into her face,
Then turned aside with
grand, unconscious grace,
And bravely stifled every wayward sigh,

Though in his voice his sorrow still did lie.
"Then as the sea that
looks up to some star,
Reflecting its bright beauty from afar,
Thus
shall I ever look on thy dear face
And from afar behold thy winning
grace.
And as the star's light in the deep blue sea
Still mirrored in
my life thy soul shall be.
Even as the ocean hears the star's glad song

Above its own sad, plaintive melody,
So to my heart thy music
shall belong
And in my saddest hours will gladden me.
I give thee
to that mocking world so vain,
Although it gives me much and weary
pain,
And may its ruthless hand be laid on thee

With lighter touch
than it has given me.
Remember, if thy spirit should grow weak,
To
thee my aid will come if thou'lt but