Poems | Page 9

city hung the moon,?Right o'er a plot of ground?Where flowers and orchard-trees were fenced?With lofty walls around:?'Twas Gilbert's garden--there to-night?Awhile he walked alone;?And, tired with sedentary toil,?Mused where the moonlight shone.
This garden, in a city-heart,?Lay still as houseless wild,?Though many-windowed mansion fronts?Were round it; closely piled;?But thick their walls, and those within?Lived lives by noise unstirred ;?Like wafting of an angel's wing,?Time's flight by them was heard.
Some soft piano-notes alone?Were sweet as faintly given,?Where ladies, doubtless, cheered the hearth?With song that winter-even.?The city's many-mingled sounds?Rose like the hum of ocean;?They rather lulled the heart than roused?Its pulse to faster motion.
Gilbert has paced the single walk?An hour, yet is not weary;?And, though it be a winter night?He feels nor cold nor dreary.?The prime of life is in his veins,?And sends his blood fast flowing,?And Fancy's fervour warms the thoughts?Now in his bosom glowing.
Those thoughts recur to early love,?Or what he love would name,?Though haply Gilbert's secret deeds?Might other title claim.?Such theme not oft his mind absorbs,?He to the world clings fast,?And too much for the present lives,?To linger o'er the past.
But now the evening's deep repose?Has glided to his soul;?That moonlight falls on Memory,?And shows her fading scroll.?One name appears in every line?The gentle rays shine o'er,?And still he smiles and still repeats?That one name--Elinor.
There is no sorrow in his smile,?No kindness in his tone;?The triumph of a selfish heart?Speaks coldly there alone;?He says: "She loved me more than life;?And truly it was sweet?To see so fair a woman kneel,?In bondage, at my feet.
"There was a sort of quiet bliss?To be so deeply loved,?To gaze on trembling eagerness?And sit myself unmoved.?And when it pleased my pride to grant?At last some rare caress,?To feel the fever of that hand?My fingers deigned to press.
"'Twas sweet to see her strive to hide?What every glance revealed;?Endowed, the while, with despot-might?Her destiny to wield.?I knew myself no perfect man,?Nor, as she deemed, divine;?I knew that I was glorious--but?By her reflected shine;
"Her youth, her native energy,?Her powers new-born and fresh,?'Twas these with Godhead sanctified?My sensual frame of flesh.?Yet, like a god did I descend?At last, to meet her love;?And, like a god, I then withdrew?To my own heaven above.
"And never more could she invoke?My presence to her sphere;?No prayer, no plaint, no cry of hers?Could win my awful ear.?I knew her blinded constancy?Would ne'er my deeds betray,?And, calm in conscience, whole in heart.?I went my tranquil way.
"Yet, sometimes, I still feel a wish,?The fond and flattering pain?Of passion's anguish to create?In her young breast again.?Bright was the lustre of her eyes,?When they caught fire from mine;?If I had power--this very hour,?Again I'd light their shine.
"But where she is, or how she lives,?I have no clue to know;?I've heard she long my absence pined,?And left her home in woe.?But busied, then, in gathering gold,?As I am busied now,?I could not turn from such pursuit,?To weep a broken vow.
"Nor could I give to fatal risk?The fame I ever prized;?Even now, I fear, that precious fame?Is too much compromised."?An inward trouble dims his eye,?Some riddle he would solve;?Some method to unloose a knot,?His anxious thoughts revolve.
He, pensive, leans against a tree,?A leafy evergreen,?The boughs, the moonlight, intercept,?And hide him like a screen?He starts--the tree shakes with his tremor,?Yet nothing near him pass'd;?He hurries up the garden alley,?In strangely sudden haste.
With shaking hand, he lifts the latchet,?Steps o'er the threshold stone;?The heavy door slips from his fingers--?It shuts, and he is gone.?What touched, transfixed, appalled, his soul?--?A nervous thought, no more;?'Twill sink like stone in placid pool,?And calm close smoothly o'er.
II. THE PARLOUR.
Warm is the parlour atmosphere,?Serene the lamp's soft light;?The vivid embers, red and clear,?Proclaim a frosty night.?Books, varied, on the table lie,?Three children o'er them bend,?And all, with curious, eager eye,?The turning leaf attend.
Picture and tale alternately?Their simple hearts delight,?And interest deep, and tempered glee,?Illume their aspects bright.?The parents, from their fireside place,?Behold that pleasant scene,?And joy is on the mother's face,?Pride in the father's mien.
As Gilbert sees his blooming wife,?Beholds his children fair,?No thought has he of transient strife,?Or past, though piercing fear.?The voice of happy infancy?Lisps sweetly in his ear,?His wife, with pleased and peaceful eye,?Sits, kindly smiling, near.
The fire glows on her silken dress,?And shows its ample grace,?And warmly tints each hazel tress,?Curled soft around her face.?The beauty that in youth he wooed,?Is beauty still, unfaded;?The brow of ever placid mood?No churlish grief has shaded.
Prosperity, in Gilbert's home,?Abides the guest of years;?There Want or Discord never come,?And seldom Toil or Tears.?The carpets bear the peaceful print?Of comfort's velvet tread,?And golden gleams, from plenty sent,?In every nook are shed.
The very silken spaniel seems?Of quiet ease to tell,?As near its mistress' feet it dreams,?Sunk in a cushion's swell?And smiles seem native to the eyes?Of those sweet children, three;?They have but looked on tranquil skies,?And know not misery.
Alas! that