Part 9 (2/2)

She leaned beyond the window sill, And looked along the busy street, And listened for his coming feet.

The skies were calm, the winds were still.

'O love, my love, why art thou late?

The kettle boils, the cloth is spread, The clock points close to noon,' she said.

O clock of time! O clock of fate!

She heard the moon's glad sound of cheer; (The hiss, the whirl, the crash, the creak, Of maddened wheels, the awful shriek Of awestruck men--she did not hear.)

She lightly tripped about the room, And near the window, where his eyes Might greet it with a pleased surprise, She placed a pot of fragrant bloom.

Strange nervous steps were at the gate.

Why grew her heart so cold, so numb?

The clock struck twelve, the noon had come.

Ah! noon of time! O noon of fate!

A shattered vase beside the wall; A young face grey with awful fear, A rigid shape, a covered bier, A shadowed life, and that is all.

THE SEARCH

The rain falls long, and the rain falls light, With a desolate drip--drop, sad to hear.

But never a star s.h.i.+nes through the night As I sit afar, from the world anear.

Down in the parlour some one sings; The children laugh in the nursery hall; But my heart like a bird has spread its wings, And leaves the music, and mirth, and all.

Out in the rain and the eerie night, Into the darkness it speeds away.

Ah me! ah me! 'tis a gruesome flight, Seeking for you till the dawn of day.

If it only knew which way to go; Where you wander, or where you lie.

To valleys of suns.h.i.+ne, or hills of snow, Thither at once my heart would fly.

Fly and follow wherever you led, Over the desert and over the wave; Or if it found you lying dead, It would sit in the rain by your lonely grave.

Sit in the rain, and cover the gra.s.s With pa.s.sionate kisses above your face.

Sit there waiting till death should pa.s.s, And bear it to you in his strong embrace.

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