Poems of Progress | Page 9

splendour?Hath known not love, but some base-born pretender.
AHASUERAS
If this be love, I would know more of it.?Speak on, fair Esther! What is love beside?
ESTHER
Love is in all things, all things are in love.?Love is the earth, the sea, the skies above;?Love is the bird, the blossom, and the wind;?Love hath a million eyes, yet love is blind;?Love is a tempest, awful in its might;?Love is the silence of a moon-lit night;?Love is the aim of every human soul;?And he who hath not loved hath missed life's goal!
AHASUERAS
But tell me of thyself, of thine own dreams!?How wouldst thou love, and how be loved again?
ESTHER
Who most doth love thinks least of love's return;?She is content to feel the passion burn?In her own bosom, and its sacred fire?Consumes each selfish purpose and desire.?'Tis in the giving, love's best rapture lies,?Not in the counting of the things it buys.
AHASUERAS
Yet, is there not vast anguish and despair?In love that finds no answering word or smile?
ESTHER
So radiant is love, it lends a glow?To each dark sorrow and to every woe.?To love completely is to part with pain,?Nor is there mortal who can love in vain.?Love is its own reward, it pays full measure,?And in love's sharpest grief lies subtlest pleasure.
AHASUERAS
Methinks, a mighty warrior, lord or king?Must in thy fancy play the lover's part;?None else could wake such reverential thought.
ESTHER
When woman loves one born of lowly state,?Her thought gives crown and sceptre to her mate;?Yet be he king, or chief of some great clan,?She loves him but as woman loves a man.?Monarch or peasant, 'tis the same, I wis?When once she gives him love's surrendering kiss.
HONEYMOON SCENE?(FROM THE DRAMA OF MIZPAH)
AHASUERAS
What were thy thoughts, sweet Esther? Something passed?Across thy face, that for a moment veiled?Thy soul from mine, and left me desolate.?Thy thoughts were not of me?
ESTHER
Ay, ALL of thee!?I wondered, if in truth, thou wert content?With me--thy choice. Was there no other one?Of all who passed before thee at thy court?Whose memory pursues thee with regret?
AHASUERAS
I do confess I much regret that day?And wish I could relive it.
ESTHER
Oh! My lord!
AHASUERAS
Yea! I regret those hours I wasted on?The poor procession that preceded thee.?Hadst thou come first, then all the added wealth
Of one long day of loving thee were mine -?A boundless fortune squandered. Though I live?To three score years and ten, as I do hope,?In wedded love beside thee, that one day?Was filched from me and cannot be restored.
ESTHER
And then to think how frightened and abashed?I hung outside thy gates from early morn,?Not daring to go in and meet thine eyes,?Till pitying twilight clothed me in her veil,?And evening walked beside me to thy door.
AHASUERAS
So it was thou, fair thief, who stole that day,?And made me poorer, by--how many hours?
ESTHER
Full eight, I think. They seemed a hundred then,?And now time flies a hundred times too fast.
AHASUERAS
Then eight more kisses do I claim from thee,?This very hour--first tithes of many due.?I shall exact these payments as I will,?And if they be not ready on demand,?I'll lock thee in the prison of my arms,?Like this--and take them so--and so--and so!
ESTHER
But kings must think of other things than love?And live for other aims than happiness.?I would not drag thee from thy altitude?Of mighty ruler and great conqueror?To chain thee by my side.
AHASUERAS
Such slavery?Would please me better than to conquer earth?Without thee, Esther. I have stood on heights?And heard the cheers of multitudes below;?Have known the loneliness of being great.?Now, let me live and love thee, like a man,?Forgetting I am king -?I am content.
ESTHER
Content is not the pathway to great deeds.?As man, I hold thee higher than all kings;?As king, thou must stand higher than all men?In other eyes. Let no one say of me:?'She spoiled his greatness by her littleness;?She made a languorous lover of a king,?And silenced war-cries on commanding lips -?With honeyed kisses; made her woman's arms?Preferred to armour, and her couch to tents,?Until the kingdom, with no guiding hand,?Plunged down to ruin.'
AHASUERAS
Thou wouldst have me go -?So soon thy heart hath wearied?
ESTHER
My heart is bursting with its love for thee!?Canst thou not feel its fervour? But great men?Need wiser guidance than a woman's heart.?My pride in thee is equal to my love,?And I would have thee greater than thou art -?Ay, greater than all other men on earth -?Though forced long years to feed my hungry heart?On food of memories and wine of tears,?Wert thou but winning glory and renown.
AHASUERAS
Thou art most noble, Esther; thou art fit?To be the consort of a king of kings.?But I have chewed upon ambition's husks?And starved for love through all my manhood's years;?And now the mighty gods have seen it fit?To spread love's banquet and to name thee host,?May I not feast my fill? O Esther, take?The tempting nectar of those lips away?And give me wine to rouse the brute