Part 5 (1/2)

MORNING

WE stood among the boats and nets; We saw the swift clouds fall, We watched the schooners scamper in Before the sudden squall;-- The jolly squall strove l.u.s.tily To whelm the sheltered street-- The merry squall that piled the seas About the patient headland's knees And chased the fis.h.i.+ng fleet.

She laughed; as if with wings her mirth Arose and left the wingless earth And all tame things behind; Rose like a bird, wild with delight Whose briny pinions flash in flight Through storm and sun and wind.

Her laughter sought those skies because Their mood and hers were one, For she and I were drunk with love And life and storm and sun!

And while she laughed, the Sun himself Leapt laughing through the rain And struck his harper hand along The ringing coast; and that wind-song Whose joy is mixed with pain Forgot the undertone of grief And joined the jocund strain, And over every hidden reef Whereon the waves broke merrily Rose jets and sprays of melody And leapt and laughed again.

II

MOONLIGHT

We stood among the boats and nets ...

We marked the risen moon Walk swaying o'er the trembling seas As one sways in a swoon;

The little stars, the lonely stars, Stole through the hollow sky, And every sucking eddy where The waves lapped wharf or rotten stair Moaned like some stricken thing hid there And strangled with its own despair As the shuddering tide crept by.

I loved her, and I hated her-- Or did I hate myself because, Bound by obscure, strong, silken laws, I felt myself the wors.h.i.+per Of beauty never wholly mine?

With lures most apt to snare, entwine, With bonds too subtle to define, Her lighter nature mastered mine; Herself half given, half withheld, Her lesser spirit still compelled Its tribute from my franker soul: So--rebel, slave, and wors.h.i.+per!-- I loved her and I hated her.

I gazed upon her, I, her thrall, And musing, murmured, _What if death_

_Were just the answer to it all?-- Suppose some dainty dagger quaffed Her life in one deep eager draught?-- Suppose some amorous knife caressed The lovely hollow of her breast?”_-- She turned a mocking look to mine: She read the thought within my eyne, She held me with her look--and laughed!

Now who may tell what stirs, controls, And shapes mad fancies into facts?

What trivial things may quicken souls To irrevocable, swift acts?

Now who has known, who understood, Wherefore some idle thing May stab with deadlier sting Than well-considered insult could?-- May spur the languor of a mood And rouse a tiger in the blood?--

Ah, Christ!--had she not laughed just when That fancy came! ... for then ... and then ...

A sudden mist dropped from the sky,

A mist swept in across the sea ...

A mist that hid her face from me ...

A weeping mist all tinged with red, A dripping mist that smelt like blood ...

It choked my throat, it burnt my brain ...

And through it peered one sallow star, And through it rang one shriek of pain ...

And when it pa.s.sed my hands were red, My soul was dabbled with her blood; And when it pa.s.sed my love was dead And tossed upon the troubled flood.

III

MOONSET

But see! ... the body does not sink; It rides upon the tide (A starbeam on the dagger's haft), With staring eyes and wide ...

And now, up from the darkling sea, Down from the failing moon, Are come strange shapes to mock at me ...

All pallid from the star-pale sea, White from the paling moon ...

Or whirling fast or wheeling slow Around, around the corpse they go, All bloodless o'er the sickened sea Beneath the ailing moon!