I.
MINE.
Mine by the right of the white election!Mine by the royal seal!Mine by the sign in the scarlet prisonBars cannot conceal!
Mine, here in vision and in veto!Mine, by the grave's repealTitled, confirmed, -- delirious charter!Mine, while the ages steal!
II.
BEQUEST.
You left me, sweet, two legacies, --A legacy of loveA Heavenly Father would content,Had He the offer of;
You left me boundaries of painCapacious as the sea,Between eternity and time,Your consciousness and me.
III.
Alter? When the hills do.Falter? When the sunQuestion if his gloryBe the perfect one.
Surfeit? When the daffodilDoth of the dew:Even as herself, O friend!I will of you!
IV.
SUSPENSE.
Elysium is as far as toThe very nearest room,If in that room a friend awaitFelicity or doom.
What fortitude the soul contains,That it can so endureThe accent of a coming foot,The opening of a door!
V.
SURRENDER.
Doubt me, my dim companion!Why, God would be contentWith but a fraction of the lovePoured thee without a stint.The whole of me, forever,What more the woman can, --Say quick, that I may dower theeWith last delight I own!
It cannot be my spirit,For that was thine before;I ceded all of dust I knew, --What opulence the moreHad I, a humble maiden,Whose farthest of degreeWas that she might,Some distant heaven,Dwell timidly with thee!
VI.
If you were coming in the fall,I'd brush the summer byWith half a smile and half a spurn,As housewives do a fly.
If I could see you in a year,I'd wind the months in balls,And put them each in separate drawers,Until their time befalls.
If only centuries delayed,I'd count them on my hand,Subtracting till my fingers droppedInto Van Diemen's land.
If certain, when this life was out,That yours and mine should be,I'd toss it yonder like a rind,And taste eternity.
But now, all ignorant of the lengthOf time's uncertain wing,It goads me, like the goblin bee,That will not state its sting.
VII.
WITH A FLOWER.
I hide myself within my flower,That wearing on your breast,You, unsuspecting, wear me too --And angels know the rest.
I hide myself within my flower,That, fading from your vase,You, unsuspecting, feel for meAlmost a loneliness.
VIII.
PROOF.
That I did always love,I bring thee proof:That till I lovedI did not love enough.
That I shall love alway,I offer theeThat love is life,And life hath immortality.
This, dost thou doubt, sweet?Then have INothing to showBut Calvary.
IX.
Have you got a brook in your little heart,Where bashful flowers blow,And blushing birds go down to drink,And shadows tremble so?
And nobody knows, so still it flows,That any brook is there;And yet your little draught of lifeIs daily drunken there.
Then look out for the little brook in March,When the rivers overflow,And the snows come hurrying from the hills,And the bridges often go.
And later, in August it may be,When the meadows parching lie,Beware, lest this little brook of lifeSome burning noon go dry!
X.
TRANSPLANTED.
As if some little Arctic flower,Upon the polar hem,Went wandering down the latitudes,Until it puzzled cameTo continents of summer,To firmaments of sun,To strange, bright crowds of flowers,And birds of foreign tongue!I say, as if this little flowerTo Eden wandered in --What then? Why, nothing, only,Your inference therefrom!
XI.
THE OUTLET.
My river runs to thee:Blue sea, wilt welcome me?
My river waits reply.Oh sea, look graciously!
I'll fetch thee brooksFrom spotted nooks, --
Say, sea,Take me!
XII.
IN VAIN.
I cannot live with you,It would be life,And life is over thereBehind the shelf
The sexton keeps the key to,Putting upOur life, his porcelain,Like a cup
Discarded of the housewife,Quaint or broken;A newer Sevres pleases,Old ones crack.
I could not die with you,For one must waitTo shut the other's gaze down, --You could not.
And I, could I stand byAnd see you freeze,Without my right of frost,Death's privilege?
Nor could I rise with you,Because your faceWould put out Jesus',That new grace
Glow plain and foreignOn my homesick eye,Except that you, than heShone closer by.
They'd judge us -- how?For you served Heaven, you know,Or sought to;I could not,
Because you saturated sight,And I had no more eyesFor sordid excellenceAs Paradise.
And were you lost, I would be,Though my nameRang loudestOn the heavenly fame.
And were you saved,And I condemned to beWhere you were not,That self were hell to me.
So we must keep apart,You there, I here,With just the door ajarThat oceans are,And prayer,And that pale sustenance,Despair!
XIII.
RENUNCIATION.
There came a day at summer's fullEntirely for me;I thought that such were for the saints,Where revelations be.
The sun, as common, went abroad,The flowers, accustomed, blew,As if no soul the solstice passedThat maketh all things new.
The time was scarce profaned by speech;The symbol of a wordWas needless, as at sacramentThe wardrobe of our Lord.
Each was to each the sealed church,Permitted to commune this time,Lest we too awkward showAt supper of the Lamb.
The hours slid fast, as hours will,Clutched tight by greedy hands;So faces on two decks look back,Bound to opposing lands.
And so, when all the time had failed,Without external sound,Each bound the other's crucifix,We gave no other bond.
Sufficient troth that we shall rise --Deposed, at length, the grave --To that new marriage, justifiedThrough Calvaries of Love!
XIV.
LOVE'S BAPTISM.
I'm ceded, I've stopped being theirs;The name they dropped upon my faceWith water, in the country church,Is finished using now,And they can put it with my dolls,My childhood, and the string of spoolsI've finished threading too.
Baptized before without the choice,But this time consciously, of graceUnto supremest name,Called to my full, the crescent dropped,Existence's whole arc filled upWith one small diadem.
My second rank, too small the first,Crowned, crowing on my father's breast,A half unconscious queen;But this time, adequate, erect,With will to choose or to reject.And I choose -- just a throne.
XV.
RESURRECTION.
'T was a long parting, but the timeFor interview had come;Before the judgment-seat of God,The last and second time
These fleshless lovers met,A heaven in a gaze,A heaven of heavens, the privilegeOf one another's eyes.
No lifetime set on them,Apparelled as the newUnborn, except they had beheld,Born everlasting now.
Was bridal e'er like this?A paradise, the host,And cherubim and seraphimThe most familiar guest.
XVI.
APOCALYPSE.
I'm wife; I've finished that,That other state;I'm Czar, I'm woman now:It's safer so.
How odd the girl's life looksBehind this soft eclipse!I think that earth seems soTo those in heaven now.
This being comfort, thenThat other kind was pain;But why compare?I'm wife! stop there!
XVII.
THE WIFE.
She rose to his requirement, droppedThe playthings of her lifeTo take the honorable workOf woman and of wife.
If aught she missed in her new dayOf amplitude, or awe,Or first prospective, or the goldIn using wore away,
It lay unmentioned, as the seaDevelops pearl and weed,But only to himself is knownThe fathoms they abide.
XVIII.
APOTHEOSIS.
Come slowly, Eden!Lips unused to thee,Bashful, sip thy jasmines,As the fainting bee,
Reaching late his flower,Round her chamber hums,Counts his nectars -- enters,And is lost in balms!