Part 22 (2/2)

How did ye triumph now in Margaret's breast, Making it readier to shrink and start Than quivering gold of the pond-lily's heart.

x.x.xV.

Here let us pause: O, would the soul might ever Achieve its immortality in youth, When nothing yet hath damped its high endeavor After the starry energy of truth!

Here let us pause, and for a moment sever This gleam of suns.h.i.+ne from the days unruth That sometime come to all, for it is good To lengthen to the last a sunny mood.

PART SECOND.

I.

As one who, from the suns.h.i.+ne and the green, Enters the solid darkness of a cave, Nor knows what precipice or pit unseen May yawn before him with its sudden grave, And, with hushed breath, doth often forward lean, Dreaming he hears the plas.h.i.+ng of a wave Dimly below, or feels a damper air From out some dreary chasm, he knows not where;--

II.

So, from the suns.h.i.+ne and the green of love, We enter on our story's darker part; And, though the horror of it well may move An impulse of repugnance in the heart, Yet let us think, that, as there's naught above The all-embracing atmosphere of Art, So also there is naught that falls below Her generous reach, though grimed with guilt and woe.

III.

Her fittest triumph is to show that good Lurks in the heart of evil evermore, That love, though scorned, and outcast, and withstood, Can without end forgive, and yet have store; G.o.d's love and man's are of the self-same blood, And He can see that always at the door Of foulest hearts the angel-nature yet Knocks to return and cancel all its debt.

IV.

It ever is weak falsehood's destiny That her thick mask turns crystal to let through The unsuspicious eyes of honesty; But Margaret's heart was too sincere and true Aught but plain truth and faithfulness to see, And Mordred's for a time a little grew To be like hers, won by the mild reproof Of those kind eyes that kept all doubt aloof.

V.

Full oft they met, as dawn and twilight meet In northern climes; she full of growing day As he of darkness, which before her feet Shrank gradual, and faded quite away, Soon to return; for power had made love sweet To him, and, when his will had gained full sway, The taste began to pall; for never power Can sate the hungry soul beyond an hour.

VI.

He fell as doth the tempter ever fall, Even in the gaining of his loathsome end; G.o.d doth not work as man works, but makes all The crooked paths of ill to goodness tend; Let him judge Margaret! If to be the thrall Of love, and faith too generous to defend Its very life from him she loved, be sin, What hope of grace may the seducer win?

VII.

Grim-hearted world, that look'st with Levite eyes On those poor fallen by too much faith in man.

She that upon thy freezing threshold lies, Starved to more sinning by thy savage ban,-- Seeking that refuge because foulest vice More G.o.d-like than thy virtue is, whose span Shuts out the wretched only,--is more free To enter Heaven than thou wilt ever be!

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