She had been mine so long, so long! Our harp of life was one in word-- Why did death thrust his hand among The chords and break one chord!
What lily lilier than her face! More virgin than her lips I kissed! When morn, like God, with gold and grace, Broke massed in mist! broke massed in mist!
_Her dead face seems to rise up before him_:
The face that I said farewell to, Pillowed a flower on flowers, Comes back, with its eyes to tell to My soul what my heart should quell to Calm, that is mine at hours.
Dear, is your soul still daggered There by something amiss? Love--is _he_ ever laggard? Hope--is _her_ face still haggard? Tell me what it is!
You, who are done with to-morrow! Done with these worldly skies! Done with our pain and sorrow! Done with the griefs we borrow! Joys that are born of sighs!
Must we say “gone forever?” Or will it all come true? Does mine touch your thought ever? And, over the doubts that sever, Rise to the fact that ’s you?
Love, in my flesh so fearful, Medicine me this pain!-- Love, with the eyes so tearful, How can my soul be cheerful, Seeing its joy is slain!...
Gone!--’t was only a vision!-- Gone! like a thought, a gleam!-- Such to our indecision Utter no empty mission;-- Truth is in all we dream!
There are shadows that compel us, There are powers that control: More than substance these can tell us, Speaking to the human soul.
In the moonlight, when it glistened On my window, white of glow, Once I woke and, leaning, listened To a voice that sang below.
Full of gladness, full of yearning, Strange with dreamy melody, Like a bird whose heart was burning, Wildly sweet it sang to me.
I arose; and by the starlight, Pale beneath the summer sky, There I saw it, full of far light,-- My dead joy go singing by.
In the darkness, when the glimmer Of the storm was on the pane, Once I sat and heard a dimmer Voice lamenting in the rain.
Full of parting and unspoken Heartbreak, faint with agony, Like a bird whose heart was broken, Moaning low it cried to me.
I arose; and in the darkness, Wan beneath the winter sky, There I saw it, cold to starkness,-- My dead love go wailing by.
_He arouses from his abstraction, buries his face in his hands and thinks_:
So long it seems since last I saw her face, So long ago it seems, Like some sad soul in unconjectured space, Still seeking happiness through perished grace And unrealities, a little while Illusions lead me, ending in the smile Of Death, triumphant in a thorny place, Among Love’s ruined roses and dead dreams.