Poems of Progress | Page 6

that great force of two mad hearts aflame,?A soul incarnate, back to earth you came,?To glow like star-dust for a little night.?Deep shadows hide you wholly from our sight;
The centuries leave nothing but your name,?Tinged with the lustre of a splendid shame,?That blazed oblivion with rebellious light.
The mighty passion that became your cause,
Still burns its lengthening path across the years;?We feel its raptures, and we see its tears?And ponder on its retributive laws.
Time keeps that deathless story ever new;?Yet finds no answer, when we ask of you.
II
At Argenteuil, I saw the lonely cell
Where Heloise dreamed through her broken rest,?That baby lips pulled at her undried breast.?It needed but my woman's heart to tell?Of those long vigils and the tears that fell
When aching arms reached out in fruitless quest,?As after flight, wings brood an empty nest.?(So well I know that sorrow, ah, so well.)
Across the centuries there comes no sound
Of that vast anguish; not one sigh or word?Or echo of the mother loss has stirred,?The sea of silence, lasting and profound.
Yet to each heart, that once has felt this grief,?Sad Memory restores Time's missing leaf.
III
But what of you? Who took the mother's place
When sweet expanding love its object sought??Was there a voice to tell her tragic lot,?And did you ever look upon her face??Was yours a cloistered seeking after grace?
Or in the flame of adolescent thought?Were Abelard's departed passions caught?To burn again in you and leave their trace?
Conceived in nature's bold primordial way
(As in their revolutions, suns create),?You came to earth, a soul immaculate,?Baptized in fire, with some great part to play.
What was that part, and wherefore hid from us,?Immortal mystery, Astrolabius!
COMPLETION
When I shall meet God's generous dispensers
Of all the riches in the heavenly store,?Those lesser gods, who act as Recompensers
For loneliness and loss upon this shore,?Methinks abashed, and somewhat hesitating,
My soul its wish and longing will declare.?Lest they reply: 'Here are no bounties waiting:
We gave on earth, your portion and your share.'
Then shall I answer: 'Yea, I do remember
The many blessings to my life allowed;?My June was always longer than December,
My sun was always stronger than my cloud,?My joy was ever deeper than my sorrow,
My gain was ever greater than my loss,?My yesterday seemed less than my to-morrow,
The crown looked always larger than the cross.
'I have known love, in all its radiant splendour,
It shone upon my pathway to the end.?I trod no road that did not bloom with tender
And fragrant blossoms, planted by some friend.?And those material things we call successes,
In modest measure, crowned my earthly lot.?Yet was there one sweet happiness that blesses
The life of woman, which to me came not.
'I knew the hope of motherhood; a season
I felt a fluttering heart beat 'neath my own;?A little cry--then silence. For that reason
I dare, to you, my only wish make known.?The babe who grew to angelhood in heaven,
I never watched unfold from child to man.?And so I ask, that unto me be given
That motherhood, which was God's primal plan.
'All womankind He meant to share its glories;
He meant us all to nurse our babes to rest.?To croon them songs, to tell them sleepy stories,
Else why the wonder of a woman's breast??He must provide for all earth's cheated mothers
In His vast heavens of shining sphere on sphere,?And with my son, there must be many others -
My spirit children who will claim me here.
'Fair creatures by my loving thoughts created -
Too finely fashioned for a mortal birth -?Between the borders of two worlds they waited
Until they saw my spirit leave the earth.?In God's great nursery they must be waiting
To welcome me with many an infant wile.?Now let me go and satisfy this longing
To mother children for a little while.'
SLEEP'S TREACHERY
As the grey twilight, tiptoed down the deep
And shadowy valley, to the day's dark end,?She whom I thought my ever-faithful friend,?Fair-browed, calm-eyed and mother-bosomed Sleep,?Met me with smiles. 'Poor longing heart, I keep
Sweet joy for you,' she murmured. 'I will send?One whom you love, with your own soul to blend?In visions, as the night hours onward creep.'
I trusted her; and watched by starry beams,
I slumbered soundly, free from all alarms.
Then not my love, but one long banished came,?Led by false Sleep, down secret stairs of dreams
And clasped me, unresisting in fond arms.
Oh, treacherous sleep--to sell me to such shame!
ART VERSUS CUPID
[A room in a private house. A maiden sitting before a fire meditating.]
MAIDEN
Now have I fully fixed upon my part.?Good-bye to dreams; for me a life of art!?Beloved art! Oh, realm serene and fair,?Above the mean and sordid world of care,?Above earth's small ambitions and desires!?Art! art! the very word my soul inspires!?From foolish memories it sets me free.?Not what has been, but that which is to be?Absorbs me now. Adieu to vain regret!?The bow is tensely drawn--the target set.?[A knock at the door.]
MAID (aside)
The night is dark and chill; the hour is late.?(Aloud)?Who