Volume I Part 16 (2/2)

Cheer up! the Lord must have his lease.

May be--for none see in that black hollow - It's just a place where we're held in p.a.w.n, And, when the Great Juggler makes as to swallow, It's just the sword-trick--I ain't quite gone!

XII

Yonder came smells of the gorse, so nutty, Gold-like and warm: it's the prime of May.

Better than mortar, brick and putty, Is G.o.d's house on a blowing day.

Lean me more up the mound; now I feel it: All the old heath-smells! Ain't it strange?

There's the world laughing, as if to conceal it, But He's by us, juggling the change.

XIII

I mind it well, by the sea-beach lying, Once--it's long gone--when two gulls we beheld, Which, as the moon got up, were flying Down a big wave that sparked and swelled.

Crack, went a gun: one fell: the second Wheeled round him twice, and was off for new luck: There in the dark her white wing beckon'd:- Drop me a kiss--I'm the bird dead-struck!

THE CROWN OF LOVE

O might I load my arms with thee, Like that young lover of Romance Who loved and gained so gloriously The fair Princess of France!

Because he dared to love so high, He, bearing her dear weight, shall speed To where the mountain touched on sky: So the proud king decreed.

Unhalting he must bear her on, Nor pause a s.p.a.ce to gather breath, And on the height she will be won; And she was won in death!

Red the far summit flames with morn, While in the plain a glistening Court Surrounds the king who practised scorn Through such a mask of sport.

She leans into his arms; she lets Her lovely shape be clasped: he fares.

G.o.d speed him whole! The knights make bets: The ladies lift soft prayers.

O have you seen the deer at chase?

O have you seen the wounded kite?

So boundingly he runs the race, So wavering grows his flight.

- My lover! linger here, and slake Thy thirst, or me thou wilt not win.

- See'st thou the tumbled heavens? they break!

They beckon us up and in.

- Ah, hero-love! unloose thy hold: O drop me like a cursed thing.

- See'st thou the crowded swards of gold?

They wave to us Rose and Ring.

- O death-white mouth! O cast me down!

Thou diest? Then with thee I die.

- See'st thou the angels with their Crown?

We twain have reached the sky.

THE HEAD OF BRAN THE BLEST

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