The House of Life | Page 5

breast the abandoned hair
doth flow,
Where one shorn tress long stirred the longing ache:
And
next the heart that trembled for its sake Lies the queen-heart in
sovereign overthrow.

LOVE'S LOVERS
Some ladies love the jewels in Love's zone
And gold-tipped darts he
hath for painless play
In idle scornful hours he flings away;
And
some that listen to his lure's soft tone
Do love to deem the silver
praise their own;
Some prize his blindfold sight; and there be they

Who kissed his wings which brought him yesterday
And thank his
wings to-day that he is flown.
My lady only loves the heart of Love:
Therefore Love's heart, my
lady, hath for thee
His bower of unimagined flower and tree:
There

kneels he now, and all-anhungered of
Thine eyes grey-lit in
shadowing hair above, Seals with thy mouth his immortality.

PASSION AND WORSHIP
One flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-player
Even where
my lady and I lay all alone;
Saying: 'Behold, this minstrel is unknown;

Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here:
Only my strains are to
Love's dear ones, dear.'
Then said I: 'Through thine hautboy;s
rapturous tone
Unto my lady still this harp makes moan,
And still
she deems the cadence deep and clear.'
Then said my,lady: 'Thou art Passion of Love,
And this Love s
Worship: both he plights to me.
Thy mastering music walks the sunlit
sea:
But where wan water trembles in the grove
And the wan moon
is all the light thereof, This harp still makes my name its voluntary.'

THE PORTRAIT
O Lord of all compassionate control,
0 Love! let this my lady's
picture glow
Under my hand to praise her name, and show
Even of
her inner self the perfect whole:
That he who seeks her beauty's
furthest goal,
Beyond the light that the sweet glances throw
And
refluent wave of the sweet smile, may know
The very sky and
sea-line of her soul.
Lo! it is done. Above the long lithe throat
The mouth's mould testifies
of voice and kiss,
The shadowed eyes remember and foresee.
Her
face is made her shrine. Let all men note
That in all years (0 Love,
thy gift is this!) They that would look on her must come to me.

THE LOVE-LETTER
Warmed by her hand and shadowed by her hair
As close she leaned
and poured her heart through thee,
Whereof the articulate throbs
accompany
The smooth black stream that makes thy whiteness fair,--

Sweet fluttering sheet, even of her breath aware,--
Oh let thy silent
song disclose to me
That soul wherewith her lips and eyes agree


Like married music in Love's answering air.
Fain had I watched her when, at some fond thought,
Her bosom to the
writing closelier press'd,
And her breast's secrets peered into her
breast;
When, through eyes raised an instant, her soul sought
My
soul, and from the sudden confluence caught The words that made
her love the loveliest.

THE LOVERS' WALK
Sweet twining hedgeflowers wind-stirred in no wise
On this June day;
and hand that clings in hand:--
Still glades; and meeting faces
scarcely fann'd:--
An osier-odoured stream that draws the skies

Deep to its heart; and mirrored eyes in eyes:--
Fresh hourly wonder
o'er the Summer land
Of light and cloud; and two souls softly spann'd

With one o'erarching heaven of smiles and sighs:--
Even such their path, whose bodies lean unto
Each other's visible
sweetness amorously,--
Whose passionate hearts lean by Love's high
decree
Together on his heart for ever true,
As the cloud-foaming
firmamental blue Rests on the blue line of a foamless sea.

ANTIPHONY
'I love you, sweet: how can you ever learn
How much I love you?'
'You I love even so,
And so I learn it.' 'Sweet, you cannot know

How fair you are.' 'If fair enough to earn
Your love, so much is all my
love's concern.'
'My love grows hourly, sweet.' ' Mine too doth grow,

Yet love seemed full so many hours ago!'
Thus lovers speak, till
kisses claim their turn.
Ah! happy they to whom such words as these
In youth have served
for speech the whole day long,
Hour after hour, remote from the
world's throng,
Work, contest, fame, all life's confederate pleas,--

What while Love breathed in sighs and silences Through two blent
souls one rapturous undersong.

YOUTH'S SPRING-TRIBUTE

On this sweet bank your head thrice sweet and dear
I lay, and spread
your hair on either side,
And see the newborn wood flowers
bashful-eyed
Look through the golden tresses here and there.
On
these debateable* borders of the year
Spring's foot half falters; scarce
she yet may know
The leafless blackthorn-blossom from the snow;

And through her bowers the wind's way still is clear.
But April's sun strikes down the glades to-day;
So shut your eyes
upturned, and feel my kiss
Creep, as the Spring now thrills through
every spray,
Up your warm throat to your warm lips: for this
Is
even the hour of Love's sworn suitservice,
With whom cold hearts are
counted castaway. *[sic]

THE BIRTH-BOND
Havw you not noted, in some family
Where two were born of a first
marriage-bed,
How still they own their gracious bond, though fed

And nursed on the forgotten breast and