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*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, [email protected]
.
MAE MADDEN
by Mary Murdoch Mason
With an introductory poem, by Joaquin Miller.
The wheel of fortune guide you,
The boy with the bow beside you

Run aye in the way, till the dawn of day
And a luckier lot betide you.
Ben Jonson.
A DREAM OF ITALY.
AN ALLEGORY INTRODUCING "MAE MADDEN."
I.
We two had been parted, God pity us, when
The stars were unnamed
and when heaven was dim;
We two had been parted far back on the
rim
And the outermost border of heaven's red bars:
We two had
been parted ere the meeting of men
Or God had set compass on
spaces as yet.
We two had been parted ere God had set
His finger to
spinning the spaces with stars,--
And now, at the last in the gold and
set
Of the sun of Venice, we two had met.
II.
Where the lion of Venice, with brows afrown,
With tossed mane
tumbled, and teeth in air,
Looks out in his watch o'er the watery town,


With a paw half lifted, with his claws half bare,
By the blue
Adriatic, in the edge of the sea,
I saw her. I knew her, but she knew
not me.
I had found her at last! Why, I had sailed
The antipodes
through, had sought, had hailed
All flags, had climbed where the
storm clouds curled,
And called from the awful arched dome of the
world.
III.
I saw her one moment, then fell back abashed
And filled full to the
throat. . . . Then I turned me once more So glad to the sea, while the
level sun flashed
On the far, snowy Alps. . . . Her breast! Why, her
breast Was white as twin pillows that allure you to rest;
Her sloping
limbs moved like to melodies, told
As she rose from the sea, and she
threw back the gold
Of her glory of hair, and set face to the shore. . . .

I knew her! I knew her, though we had not met
Since the far stars
sang to the sun's first set.
IV.
How long I had sought her! I had hungered, nor ate
Of any sweet
fruits. I had tasted not one
Of all the fair glories grown under the sun.

I had sought only her. Yea, I knew that she
Had come upon earth
and stood waiting for me
Somewhere by my way. But the path ways
of fate
They had led otherwhere. The round world round,
The far
North seas and the near profound
Had failed me for aye. Now I stood
by that sea
While a ship drove by, and all dreamily.
V.
I had turned from the lion a time, and when
I looked tow'rd the tide
and out on the lea
Of the town where the warm sea tumbled and
teemed
With beauty, I saw her. I knew her then,
The tallest, the
fairest fair daughter of men.
O, Venice stood full in her glory. She
gleamed
In the splendor of sunset and sensuous sea;
Yet I saw but

my bride, my affinity,
While the doves hurried home to the dome of
Saint Mark
And the brass horses plunged their high manes in the
dark,
VI.
Was it well with my love? Was she true? Was she brave
With virtue's
own valor? Was she waiting for me?
O, how fared my love! Had she
home? Had she bread?
Had she known but the touch of the
warm-tempered wave?
Was she born upon earth with a crown on her
head;
Or born like myself, but a dreamer, instead?
So long it had
been! So long! Why the sea,
That wrinkled and surly old
time-tempered slave,
Had been born, had his revels, grown wrinkled
and hoar
Since I last saw my love on that uttermost shore.
VII.
O, how fared my love? Once I lifted my face
And I shook back my
hair and looked out on the sea;
I pressed my hot palms as I stood in
my place
And cried, "O, I come like a king to your side
Though all
hell intervene." . . . "Hist! she may be a bride! A mother at peace, with
sweet babes on her knee!
A babe at her breast and a spouse at her
side! . . .
Have I wandered too long, and has destiny
Set mortal
between us?" I buried my face
In my hands, and I moaned as I stood
in my place.
VIII.
'Twas her year to be young. She was tall, she was fair
Was she pure
as the snow on the Alps over there?
'Twas her year to be young. She
was fair, she was tall
And I knew she was true as I lifted my face

And saw her press down her rich robe to its place
With a hand white
and small as a babe's with a doll,
And her