Part 39 (1/2)

What drew me so I know not, But drawing near I said, ”Kind sir, and can you tell me Who is it here lies dead?”

Said he, ”Your most beloved Died here this very day, That had known twenty Aprils Had she but lived till May.”

Astonished I made answer, ”Good sir, how say you so!

Here have I no beloved, This house I do not know.”

Quoth he, ”Who from the world's end Was destined unto thee Here lies, thy true beloved Whom thou shalt never see.”

I dreamed I pa.s.sed a doorway Where, for a sign of death, White ribbons one was binding About a flowery wreath.

Cinquains. [Adelaide c.r.a.psey]

Fate Defied

As it Were tissue of silver I'll wear, O fate, thy grey, And go mistily radiant, clad Like the moon.

Night Winds

The old Old winds that blew When chaos was, what do They tell the clattered trees that I Should weep?

The Warning

Just now, Out of the strange Still dusk . . . as strange, as still . . .

A white moth flew . . . Why am I grown So cold?

The Lonely Death. [Adelaide c.r.a.psey]

In the cold I will rise, I will bathe In waters of ice; myself Will s.h.i.+ver, and shrive myself, Alone in the dawn, and anoint Forehead and feet and hands; I will shutter the windows from light, I will place in their sockets the four Tall candles and set them aflame In the grey of the dawn; and myself Will lay myself straight in my bed, And draw the sheet under my chin.

Exile from G.o.d. [John Hall Wheelock]