Part 23 (1/2)

IV.

Will she cling to me as kindly When the childish faith is lost?

Will she pray for me as blindly, Or but weigh the wish and cost, Looking back on our lost Eden from the girlhood she has cross'd?

V.

Oh! I swear by all I honour, By the graves that I endow, By the grace I set upon her, That I meant the early vow,-- Meant it much as men and women mean the same thing spoken now.

VI.

But her maiden troth is broken, And her mind is ill at ease, And she sends me back no token From her home beyond the seas; And I know, though nought is spoken, that she thanks me on her knees.

VII.

Yes, for pardon freely granted; For she wrong'd me, understand.

And my life is disenchanted, As I wander through the land With the sorrows of dark morrows that await me in a band.

VIII.

Hers was sweetest of sweet faces, Hers the tenderest eyes of all!

In her hair she had the traces Of a heavenly coronal, Bringing suns.h.i.+ne to sad places where the sunlight could not fall.

IX.

She was fairer than a vision; Like a vision, too, has flown.

I who flushed at her decision, Lo! I languish here alone; And I tremble when I tell you that my anger was mine own.

X.

Not for her, sweet sainted creature!

Could I curse her to her face?

Could I look on form and feature, And deny the inner grace?

Like a little wax Madonna she was holy in the place.

XI.

And I told her, in mad fas.h.i.+on, That I loved her,--would incline All my life to this one pa.s.sion, And would kneel as at a shrine; And would love her late and early, and would teach her to be mine.

XII.