Part 5 (2/2)

”What is it, love?” I whispered in my sleep, And turned to thee, as April unto May.

”Art mine in truth, mine own, by night and day, Now and for ever?” And I heard thee weep, And then persuade; and then my soul did leap Swiftly to thine, in love's ecstatic sway.

XX.

I fondled thee! I drew thee to my heart, Well knowing in the dark that joy is dumb.

And then a cry, a sigh, a sob, did come Forth from thy lips.... I waken'd, with a start, To find thee gone. The day had taken part Against the total of my blisses' sum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Letter V CONFESSIONS]

LETTER V.

CONFESSIONS.

I.

O Lady mine! O Lady of my Life!

Mine and not mine, a being of the sky Turn'd into Woman, and I know not why-- Is't well, bethink thee, to maintain a strife With thy poor servant? War unto the knife, Because I greet thee with a lover's eye?

II.

Is't well to visit me with thy disdain, And rack my soul, because, for love of thee, I was too p.r.o.ne to sink upon my knee, And too intent to make my meaning plain, And too resolved to make my loss a gain To do thee good, by Love's immortal plea?

III.

O friend! forgive me for my dream of bliss.

Forgive: forget; be just! Wilt not forgive?

Not though my tears should fall, as through a sieve The salt sea-sand? What joy hast thou in this: To be a maid, and marvel at a kiss?

Say! Must I die, to prove that I can live?

IV.

Shall this be so? E'en this? And all my love Wreck'd in an instant? No, a gentle heart Beats in thy bosom; and the shades depart From all fair gardens, and from skies above, When thou art near. For thou art like a dove, And dainty thoughts are with thee where thou art.

V.

Oh! it is like the death of dearest kin, To wake and find the fancies of the brain Sear'd and confused. We languish in the strain Of some lost music, and we find within, Deep in the heart, the record of a sin, The thrill thereof, and all the blissful pain.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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