The Village Wifes Lament | Page 5

warm, still day of May?And brought me a letter.?I blusht so red, the cook she said,?Lucky man to get her!
At half-past three he came for me;?I dared not speak;?But there was all he need to see?Flaming in my cheek.?What better has the best of us?If kind Heaven grant her?A glowing hearth, a little house,?And a good man to want her?
In the soft shrouding clinging mist?His strong arms held me.?Our lips kept tryst, and long we kiss'd;?His great love fill'd me.?Sweet is the warmth of summer weather,?But the best fire I know?Is of two pair of lips together,?Two hearts in one glow.
His love he told, that made me bold?To look at him fairly,?And see the burning blush take hold?And colour him up rarely.?Within his ply though caught was I,?I backt a saucy head:?"Oh, I was shy a year gone by--?Your turn now," I said.
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Now would you prove the man I love?As I saw him then??He was of them who're slow to move,?One of your still men;?One of your men self-communing?Who see sheep on a hill,?Ships out at sea or birds a-wing?Where you see _nil_.
And what they see they seldom say,?Holding speech to be vain;?And yet so kin to earth are they?They smell the coming rain.?The earth can teach them without speech,?They know as they are known--?Why should they preach to the out-of-reach,?Or counsel Nature's own?
He never was a man to talk,?He was too wise;?But things he'd see out on his walk?Would blind another's eyes.?But when it came to speak about them?'Twas another thing.?He'd say, "What use is it to shout them??I want to sing!"
A smallish head, with jet-black hair?And eyes grey-blue,?You felt when'er he lookt you fair?That he must be true;?And when he smil'd his dear and shy way?Sidelong his mouth,?I always thought the sun fell my way?And the wind South.
So I possest the knowledge blest?That Love had held him fast?Since the day our eyes confest,?The first time and the last.?"Since then," he said, "I never durst?Look at you at all,?For fear you'd see the hunger and thirst?That kept me like a thrall.
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"'Twas when you went away and left?Me and pain alone,?By fortune's theft I stood bereft?Of all I'd counted on--?And this also, I ne'er could go?On my shepherd life,?Without I had the grace to woo?You my loving wife.
"There was a fate, I do believe,?Call'd us together;?God visit me when'er you grieve?Taking on my tether!?But if we share with every creature?That is quick and dead?The call of nature unto nature,?Then we two should wed.
"You are a beauty bred and born,?As any one can see;?You walk the world as if in scorn?Of riches or degree.?Your eyes call home the soft green tone?Of the fainting sky?When the eve-star keeps watch alone,?And the summer is nigh.
"But 'tis your grave and constant mind?Beckon'd me to you,?Too good, too sweet, too fond, too kind,?For me to be untrue.?So trust me, lass, I'll not be false?While I do live,?For we two go where Nature calls,?As I believe."
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Trust! Oh, I could have sunk to ground?And lain under his feet!?To have his praise was like a wound,?Throbbing and deadly sweet;?A wound that lets the welling blood?Ebb from the vein,?Merging the hurt in drowsihood,?And hushing down the pain.
High destiny of Nature's calling,?Foil'd and frustrate!?Just then the evil tide was crawling?To drown love in hate.
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The meadows wear a cloth of gold,?The trees wear green;?Upon the down in dimpled fold?The white lambs glean;?Deep blue the skyey canopy,?Soft the wind's fan:?Behold the earth as it might be?If man lov'd man!
Summer is soon; the next new moon?Will see the yellowing wheat;?Then will be harvest, Earth's high boon?To them that work for it.?The reapers swink, the heat-waves blink?Across the drowsy fen--?Now let hearts shrink from scythes that drink?The blood of young men!
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As I stood at my open door?I caught a flying word:?Two strangers past, "Then that means war----"?That was what I heard.?'Twas ten o'clock, a summer's day,?My love on the hill.?"Then that means war," I heard them say,?And my heart stood still.
Life had been fair as I stood there,?Eight weeks a bride;?All of me laid warm and bare?To my true love's side!?Oh, who should dream of dark to-morrows?And lonely weeping?Whose steadfast joys and passing sorrows?Lay in such a keeping?
There blew a chill wind from the hill?Like a sea-breath;?I shiver'd and a taint of ill?Brought news of death.?I blinkt my eyes as who should try?To see what is to fear;?The sun still shone high in the sky,?But no warmth there.
Then far away I saw the sea?A rippling golden sheet,?And courage flowed again in me--?What foe could break thro' it??And all about the fields and hedges,?There when I was born,?The river slipping through the sedges,?And the growing corn--
A land of quiet tilth and cote,?Of little woods and streams,?Of gentle skies and clouds afloat,?And swift sun-gleams!?A land where knee-deep cattle keep,?Chewing as they stand;?Of hillsides murmurous with sheep--?That