The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems | Page 9

blood, then drove it home?Clean to her own black heart.
Regent. God pardon her!?I would what blood of mine clung to the blade?Might mix with hers and sweeten it for mercy.
Lucio. Will you forgive her? Then forgive not me!
Regent. Dear Lucio!--You'll not pluck away your hand?This time? Hush! Where's Cesario?... Friend, farewell.?Where lies the body?
Cesario. Sooth, madonna, I flung it?To the river's will, to roll it down to sea?Or cast on muddy bar, for dogs to gnaw.
Regent. The river? Ah! How strong the river rolls!?Hold me, my lord--
Duke. Love, love, I hold you
Regent.--Ay!?The child, too--You will hold the child?...?This roar?Deafens but will not drown us.
[_Within the Chapel the choir is chanting a dirge.?Gamba goes and closes the door on the sound:?then creeps to the foot of the couch. The?dying woman gently motions aside the cross?a priest is holding to her, and looks up at her?husband._
[_Below the terrace a voice is heard singing the?Rondinello song._
Look! beyond?Be waters where no galley moves with oar,?So wide, so waveless,--and, between the woods,?Meadows--O land me there!... Hark, my lord's voice?Singing in Vallescura! Soft my, love,?I am so tired--so tired! Love, let me play!?[Dies.
[_The Courtiers lift the body in silence and bear it?to the Chapel, the Duke and his train following.?The doors close on them. On the stage are?left only Cesario, standing by the balustrade;?and Gamba, who has seated himself with his?viol and touches it, as still the voice sings?below--_
Addio, Addio! ed un'altra volt'addio!?La lundananza tua, 'l desiderio mio!
[_On the last note a string of the viol cracks, and with?a cry the Fool flings himself, heart-broken, on?the empty couch. Cesario steps forward and?stands over him, touching his shoulder gently._
CURTAIN.
POEMS
EXMOOR VERSES
I. VASHTI'S SONG
Over the rim of the Moor,?And under the starry sky,?Two men came to my door?And rested them thereby.
Beneath the bough and the star,?In a whispering foreign tongue,?They talked of a land afar?And the merry days so young!
Beneath the dawn and the bough?I heard them arise and go:?And my heart it is aching now?For the more it will never know.
Why did they two depart?Before I could understand??Where lies that land, O my heart??--O my heart, where lies that land?
II. SATURN
From my farm, from h��r farm?Furtively we came.?In either home a hearth was warm:?We nursed a hungrier flame.
Our feet were foul with mire,?Our faces blind with mist;?But all the night was naked fire?About us where we kiss'd.
To her farm, to my farm,?Loathing we returned;?Pale beneath a gallow's arm?The planet Saturn burned.
III. DERELICTION
O'er the tears that we shed, dear?The bitter vines twist,?And the hawk and the red deer?They keep where we kiss'd:?All broken lies the shieling?That sheltered from rain,?With a star to pierce the ceiling,?And the dawn an empty pane.
Thro' the mist, up the moorway,?Fade hunters and pack;?From the ridge to thy doorway?Happy voices float back ...?O, between the threads o' mist, love,?Reach your hands from the house.?Only mind that we kiss'd, love,?And forget the broken vows!
TWO FOLK SONGS
I. THE SOLDIER
(Roumanian)
_When winter trees bestrew the path,?Still to the twig a leaf or twain?Will cling and weep, not Winter's wrath,?But that foreknown forlorner pain--?To fall when green leaves come again._
I watch'd him sleep by the furrow--?The first that fell in the fight.?His grave they would dig to-morrow:?The battle called them to-night.
They bore him aside to the trees, there,?By his undigg'd grave content?To lie on his back at ease there,?And hark how the battle went.
The battle went by the village,?And back through the night were borne?Far cries of murder and pillage,?With smoke from the standing corn.
But when they came on the morrow,?They talk'd not over their task,?As he listen'd there by the furrow;?For the dead mouth could not ask--
How went the battle, my brothers??But that he will never know:?For his mouth the red earth smothers?As they shoulder their spades and go.
Yet he cannot sleep thereunder,?But ever must toss and turn.?How went the battle, I wonder??--And that he will never learn!
_When winter trees bestrew the path,?Still to the twig a leaf or twain?Will cling and weep, not Winter's wrath,?But that foreknown, forlorner pain--?To fall when green leaves come again!_
II. THE MARINE
(Poitevin)
The bold Marine comes back from war,
So kind:?The bold Marine comes back from war,
So kind:?With a raggety coat and a worn-out shoe.?"Now, poor Marine, say, whence come you,
All so kind?"
I travel back from the war, madame,
So kind:?I travel back from the war, madame,
So kind:?For a glass of wine and a bowl of whey,?'Tis I will sing you a ballad gay,
All so kind.
The bold Marine he sips his whey,
So kind:?He sips and he sings his ballad gay,
So kind:?But the dame she turns toward the wall,?To wipe her tears that fall and fall,
All so kind.
What aileth you at my song, madame,
So kind??I hope that I sing no wrong, madame,
So kind?
Or grieves it you a beggar should dine?On a bowl of whey and the good white wine,
All so kind?
It ails me not at your ballad