The Lover's Tale Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDAEFGHIJIIKKKLKK EMAKNGOPQI MKRSAKTOUVWKXOIH YKKZA2KKAB2HC2KD2QE2 OOI IF2KG2KH2KMKI2HJ2MK2 J2KL2KM2N2IK O2OKHP2MQ2IYR2OS2T2M 2U2S2S2S2KS2S2IS2V2M IKM W2X2E2Y2S2II2S2KOKS2 S2Z2S2N2OKPOKPKKKKKS 2M KOS2LMOA3OM2KIS2B3IM 2S2S2C3IIIMMMM2MS2M2 KS2KM2IKIPM2PM2M2 KID3KS2M2K S2S2IKKM2E3M2KB3E3M2 S2S2O2S2S2S2IS2KS2MM 2KKS2 KE3S2OKIS2KKS2KMS2F3 I G3KH3KKKS2I3S2KS2M2E 2KIKKOPE2S2KS2M2S2S2 KV2M2M2S2N2G2M2KMKKO IM2M2S2OOJ3KKM2KKKKQ 2IS2KS2KKM2S2KKK3S2P KIKM2L3S2S2KM2S2M3S2 PS2LS2S2KM2I2OIN3M2 S2O3KS2M2KS2KIKP3KQ2 S2S2S2 S2S2KM2KKM2K OOIM2KKIS2KIIS2IS2KK S2S2M2KKQ3S2K N3 MR3W2S2S2IOS3W2KN3W2 T3O3KMIN3M2KS2KOKU3K S2S2LKS2S2VKK MMMM2S2S2OT3M2S2M3OI KLO3S2OS2S3LS2KS2KN2 PS2KMM2 K3S2B3I2S2KS2M2S2KS2 YYYN3KN3MIMMM2 N3 IKS2A2KS2M2KS2IKKKM2 MKMX2KI M2S2S2S2VS2V3K3KS2PM S2MKM2M2PLKQ2S2W3MX3 S2MS2M2S2 OS2OI2M2S2LKKMS2KKIO VKKT3KKKOK N3KS2S2S2S2IQ2Y3KKKM S2KW2M2KOKS2MS2X2OKE 3KC3S2KM2OS2OKOM2LT2 OIKS2T2S2MK3K3S2S2KL LE2LN3S2IS2S2OM E2KKS2S2S2KKKS2S2E2S 2M2IE2S2E2KKE2LIM2 E2S2S2KKE2KLM2KS2S2K E2IS2KON3E2A2S2LS2KE 2KS2OOO3KKKS2K KLS2N3S2S2MOS2M2KOS2 M2OS2M2OIS2ILS2KKE2 S2KS2KS2S2S2S2KKE2S2 S2OS2S2LLS2S2OE2M2KS 2 S2S2E2S2KMKS2M2S2E2S 2KLIM2S2J2KM2S2M2KC3 S2E2KS2M2C3 OOZ2OKMIS2S2S2KJ2S2S 2IOS2MIKKKS2M2S2S2M2 KK LKS2KKS2S2IKY2M2KOMN 3M2S2E2E2S2KKX2K X2E2E2IS2S2S2 S2LKKKM2KLIKM2 M2YMKE2YS2YK S2M2E2S2KS2KOS2S2IKK KKKOM2LS2ML S2S2E2X2S2E2KE2E2S2K OS2S2KMKS2E2MS2KLS2O KKLE2S2S2KKKM2LM2S2M 2S2S2KKKS2S2K M2S2S2E2E2E2S2Z3M2E2 KOKKM2M2LM2KM2X2IS2L KOE2OKE2KE2K S2IOOS2E2S2IE2KKX2LM 2M2C3M2E2KKC3KS2KS2E 2LE2S2MM2S2S2E2M2X2O S2M2KS2S2KKS2E2S2S2S 2KKKS2A4M2KS2M2OX2KS 2S2O X2LE2M2S2S2S2S2OMOM2 E2S2KOKIIM2S2S2LS2KI M2S2IS2S2M2E2S2M2S2S 2M2LLOS2M2 S2M2IM2OS2M2S2S2M2OM 2M2OM2M2M2S2M2S2LM2O M2M2M2M2S2M2M2OM2S2O E2M2S2S2S2M2M2M2IIM2 S2M2OS2LM2M2M2IS2S2M 2M2M2 S2 I M2 M2 M2M2S2M2S2M2X2 M2M2M2 M2M2OE2M2M2M2OE2 S2X2S2IS2 M2E2M2S2S2X2M2S2M2S2 S2X2E2E2 OM2M2M2M2LIIM2E2 OS2S2M2E2M2M2M2E2S2M 2S2 C3S2OM2E2M2E2M2LMX2M S2MS2C3IS2E2S2S2S2M2 LM2M2M2S2E2 LS2S2MLS2LOLS2M2OE2I IOS2OE2S2 M2IS2X2E2OS2 E2MMS2M2M2X2E2O S2B4E2M2S2S2S2OX2E2M 2 S2C4X2S2S2M2IOS2MS2S 2S2 S2S2 OM2M2S2S2X2S2S2M2M2E 2MS2M2 X2M2E2M2E2 E2OM2 OX2S2X2M2S2M2M2 M2OS2E2MS2E2E2X2M2S2 M2OM2S2M2M2M2M2M2S2M 2S2S2Z3L OE2M2E2X2D4S2O LM2M2OLE2E2M2S2 M2E2M2M2OM2 OM2O E2S2M2S2S2S2M2M2S2M2 S2S2S2 S2OS2S2MS2M2S2OX2IX2 X2 M2MS2OO M2M2S2S2S2M2S2OOO M2OX2IS2M2M2M2M2S2E2 E4S2IM2M2S2IS2F4E2M2 OS2S2OS2S2S2S2IM2 E2S2O M2S2M2E2S2LE2 M2E4X2LM2S2X2S2S2S2O OM2S2E2S2M2IX2M2S2I S2S2 IOS2M2OM2M2E2S2 ILS2M2LS2 S2E4OIS2S2OE2X2E2IM2 IM2M2LM2M2S2E2

I	A
Here far away seen from the topmost cliff	B
Filling with purple gloom the vacancies	C
Between the tufted hills the sloping seas	C
Hung in mid heaven and half way down rare sails	D
White as white clouds floated from sky to sky	A
Oh pleasant breast of waters quiet bay	E
Like to a quiet mind in the loud world	F
Where the chafed breakers of the outer sea	G
Sank powerless as anger falls aside	H
And withers on the breast of peaceful love	I
Thou didst receive the growth of pines that fledged	J
The hills that watch'd thee as Love watcheth Love	I
In thine own essence and delight thyself	I
To make it wholly thine on sunny days	K
Keep thou thy name of 'Lover's Bay ' See sirs	K
Even now the Goddess of the Past that takes	K
The heart and sometimes touches but one string	L
That quivers and is silent and sometimes	K
Sweeps suddenly all its half moulder'd chords	K
To some old melody begins to play	E
That air which pleased her first I feel thy breath	M
I come great Mistress of the ear and eye	A
Thy breath is of the pinewood and tho' years	K
Have hollow'd out a deep and stormy strait	N
Betwixt the native land of Love and me	G
Breathe but a little on me and the sail	O
Will draw me to the rising of the sun	P
The lucid chambers of the morning star	Q
And East of Life	I
	-
Permit me friend I prythee	M
To pass my hand across my brows and muse	K
On those dear hills that never more will meet	R
The sight that throbs and aches beneath my touch	S
As tho' there beat a heart in either eye	A
For when the outer lights are darken'd thus	K
The memory's vision hath a keener edge	T
It grows upon me now the semicircle	O
Of dark blue waters and the narrow fringe	U
Of curving beach its wreaths of dripping green	V
Its pale pink shells the summerhouse aloft	W
That open'd on the pines with doors of glass	K
A mountain nest the pleasure boat that rock'd	X
Light green with its own shadow keel to keel	O
Upon the dappled dimplings of the wave	I
That blanch'd upon its side	H
	-
O Love O Hope	Y
They come they crowd upon me all at once	K
Moved from the cloud of unforgotten things	K
That sometimes on the horizon of the mind	Z
Lies folded often sweeps athwart in storm	A2
Flash upon flash they lighten thro' me days	K
Of dewy dawning and the amber eves	K
When thou and I Camilla thou and I	A
Were borne about the bay or safely moor'd	B2
Beneath a low brow'd cavern where the tide	H
Plash'd sapping its worn ribs and all without	C2
The slowly ridging rollers on the cliffs	K
Clash'd calling to each other and thro' the arch	D2
Down those loud waters like a setting star	Q
Mixt with the gorgeous west the lighthouse shone	E2
And silver smiling Venus ere she fell	O
Would often loiter in her balmy blue	O
To crown it with herself	I
	-
Here too my love	I
Waver'd at anchor with me when day hung	F2
From his mid dome in Heaven's airy halls	K
Gleams of the water circles as they broke	G2
Flicker'd like doubtful smiles about her lips	K
Quiver'd a flying glory on her hair	H2
Leapt like a passing thought across her eyes	K
And mine with one that will not pass till earth	M
And heaven pass too dwelt on my heaven a face	K
Most starry fair but kindled from within	I2
As 'twere with dawn She was dark hair'd dark eyed	H
Oh such dark eyes a single glance of them	J2
Will govern a whole life from birth to death	M
Careless of all things else led on with light	K2
In trances and in visions look at them	J2
You lose yourself in utter ignorance	K
You cannot find their depth for they go back	L2
And farther back and still withdraw themselves	K
Quite into the deep soul that evermore	M2
Fresh springing from her fountains in the brain	N2
Still pouring thro' floods with redundant life	I
Her narrow portals	K
	-
Trust me long ago	O2
I should have died if it were possible	O
To die in gazing on that perfectness	K
Which I do bear within me I had died	H
But from my farthest lapse my latest ebb	P2
Thine image like a chants of light and strength	M
Upon the waters push'd me back again	Q2
On these deserted sands of barren life	I
Tho' from the deep vault where the heart of Hope	Y
Fell into dust and crumbled in the dark	R2
Forgetting how to render beautiful	O
Her countenance with quick and healthful blood	S2
Thou didst not sway me upward could I perish	T2
While thou a meteor of the sepulchre	M2
Didst swathe thyself all round Hope's quiet urn	U2
For ever He that saith it hath o'er stept	S2
The slippery footing of his narrow wit	S2
And fall'n away from judgment Thou art light	S2
To which my spirit leaneth all her flowers	K
And length of days and immortality	S2
Of thought and freshness ever self renew'd	S2
For Time and Grief abode too long with Life	I
And like all other friends i' the world at last	S2
They grew aweary of her fellowship	V2
So Time and Grief did beckon unto Death	M
And Death drew nigh and beat the doors of Life	I
But thou didst sit alone in the inner house	K
A wakeful portress and didst parle with Death	M
'This is a charmed dwelling which I hold '	-
So Death gave back and would no further come	W2
Yet is my life nor in the present time	X2
Nor in the present place To me alone	E2
Push'd from his chair of regal heritage	Y2
The Present is the vassal of the Past	S2
So that in that I have lived do I live	I
And cannot die and am in having been	I2
A portion of the pleasant yesterday	S2
Thrust forward on to day and out of place	K
A body journeying onward sick with toil	O
The weight as if of age upon my limbs	K
The grasp of hopeless grief about my heart	S2
And all the senses weaken'd save in that	S2
Which long ago they had glean'd and garner'd up	Z2
Into the granaries of memory	S2
The clear brow bulwark of the precious brain	N2
Chink'd as you see and seam'd and all the while	O
The light soul twines and mingles with the growths	K
Of vigorous early days attracted won	P
Married made one with molten into all	O
The beautiful in Past of act or place	K
And like the all enduring camel driven	P
Far from the diamond fountain by the palms	K
Who toils across the middle moonlit nights	K
Or when the white heats of the blinding noons	K
Beat from the concave sand yet in him keeps	K
A draught of that sweet fountain that he loves	K
To stay his feet from falling and his spirit	S2
From bitterness of death	M
	-
Ye ask me friends	K
When I began to love How should I tell you	O
Or from the after fulness of my heart	S2
Flow back again unto my slender spring	L
And first of love tho' every turn and depth	M
Between is clearer in my life than all	O
Its present flow Ye know not what ye ask	A3
How should the broad and open flower tell	O
What sort of bud it was when prest together	M2
In its green sheath close lapt in silken folds	K
It seem'd to keep its sweetness to itself	I
Yet was not the less sweet for that it seem'd	S2
For young Life knows not when young Life was born	B3
But takes it all for granted neither Love	I
Warm in the heart his cradle can remember	M2
Love in the womb but resteth satisfied	S2
Looking on her that brought him to the light	S2
Or as men know not when they fall asleep	C3
Into delicious dreams our other life	I
So know I not when I began to love	I
This is my sum of knowledge that my love	I
Grew with myself say rather was my growth	M
My inward sap the hold I have on earth	M
My outward circling air wherewith I breathe	M
Which yet upholds my life and evermore	M2
Is to me daily life and daily death	M
For how should I have lived and not have loved	S2
Can ye take off the sweetness front the flower	M2
The colour and the sweetness from the rose	K
And place them by themselves or set apart	S2
Their motions and their brightness from the stars	K
And then point out the flower or the star	M2
Or build a wall betwixt my life and love	I
And tell me where I am 'Tis even thus	K
In that I live I love because I love	I
I live whate'er is fountain to the one	P
Is fountain to the other and whene'er	M2
Our God unknits the riddle of the one	P
There is no shade or fold of mystery	M2
Swathing the other	M2
	-
Many many years	K
For they seem many and my most of life	I
And well I could have linger'd in that porch	D3
So unproportion'd to the dwelling place	K
In the Maydews of childhood opposite	S2
The flush and dawn of youth we lived together	M2
Apart alone together on those hills	K
	-
Before he saw my day my father died	S2
And he was happy that he saw it not	S2
But I and the first daisy on his grave	I
From the same day came into light at once	K
As Love and I do number equal years	K
So she my love is of an age with me	M2
How like each other was the birth of each	E3
On the same morning almost the same hour	M2
Under the selfsame aspect of the stars	K
Oh falsehood of all starcraft we were born	B3
How like each other was the birth of each	E3
The sister of my mother she that bore	M2
Camilla close beneath her beating heart	S2
Which to the imprison'd spirit of the child	S2
With its true touched pulses in the flow	O2
And hourly visitation of the blood	S2
Sent notes of preparation manifold	S2
And mellow'd echoes of the outer world	S2
My mother's sister mother of my love	I
Who had a twofold claim upon my heart	S2
One twofold mightier than the other was	K
In giving so much beauty to the world	S2
And so much wealth as God had charged her with	M
Loathing to put it from herself for ever	M2
Left her own life with it and dying thus	K
Crown'd with her highest act the placid face	K
And breathless body of her good deeds past	S2
	-
So were we born so orphan'd She was motherless	K
And I without a father So from each	E3
Of those two pillars which from earth uphold	S2
Our childhood one had fallen away and all	O
The careful burthen of our tender years	K
Trembled upon the other He that gave	I
Her life to me delightedly fulfill'd	S2
All loving kindnesses all offices	K
Of watchful care and trembling tenderness	K
He waked for both he pray'd for both he slept	S2
Dreaming of both nor was his love the less	K
Because it was divided and shot forth	M
Boughs on each side laden with wholesome shade	S2
Wherein we nested sleeping or awake	F3
And sang aloud the matin song of life	I
	-
She was my foster sister on one arm	G3
The flaxen ringlets of our infancies	K
Wander'd the while we rested one soft lap	H3
Pillow'd us both a common light of eyes	K
Was on us as we lay our baby lips	K
Kissing one bosom ever drew from thence	K
The stream of life one stream one life one blood	S2
One sustenance which still as thought grew large	I3
Still larger moulding all the house of thought	S2
Made all our tastes and fancies like perhaps	K
All all but one and strange to me and sweet	S2
Sweet thro' strange years to know that whatsoe'er	M2
Our general mother meant for me alone	E2
Our mutual mother dealt to both of us	K
So what was earliest mine in earliest life	I
I shared with her in whom myself remains	K
As was our childhood so our infancy	K
They tell me was a very miracle	O
Of fellow feeling and communion	P
They tell me that we would not be alone	E2
We cried when we were parted when I wept	S2
Her smile lit up the rainbow on my tears	K
Stay'd on the cloud of sorrow that we loved	S2
The sound of one another's voices more	M2
Than the gray cuckoo loves his name and learn'd	S2
To lisp in tune together that we slept	S2
In the same cradle always face to face	K
Heart beating time to heart lip pressing lip	V2
Folding each other breathing on each other	M2
Dreaming together dreaming of each other	M2
They should have added till the morning light	S2
Sloped thro' the pines upon the dewy pane	N2
Falling unseal'd our eyelids and we woke	G2
To gaze upon each other If this be true	M2
At thought of which my whole soul languishes	K
And faints and hath no pulse no breath as tho'	M
A man in some still garden should infuse	K
Rich atar in the bosom of the rose	K
Till drunk with its own wine and overfull	O
Of sweetness and in smelling of itself	I
It fall on its own thorns if this be true	M2
And that way my wish leads me evermore	M2
Still to believe it 'tis so sweet a thought	S2
Why in the utter stillness of the soul	O
Doth question'd memory answer not nor tell	O
Of this our earliest our closest drawn	J3
Most loveliest earthly heavenliest harmony	K
O blossom'd portal of the lonely house	K
Green prelude April promise glad new year	M2
Of Being which with earliest violets	K
And lavish carol of clear throated larks	K
Filled all the March of life I will not speak of thee	K
These have not seen thee these can never know thee	K
They cannot understand me Pass we then	Q2
A term of eighteen years Ye would but laugh	I
If I should tell you how I hoard in thought	S2
The faded rhymes and scraps of ancient crones	K
Gray relics of the nurseries of the world	S2
Which are as gems set in my memory	K
Because she learnt them with me or what use	K
To know her father left us just before	M2
The daffodil was blown or how we found	S2
The dead man cast upon the shore All this	K
Seems to the quiet daylight of your minds	K
But cloud and smoke and in the dark of mine	K3
Is traced with flame Move with me to the event	S2
There came a glorious morning such a one	P
As dawns but once a season Mercury	K
On such a morning would have flung himself	I
From cloud to cloud and swum with balanced wings	K
To some tall mountain when I said to her	M2
'A day for Gods to stoop ' she answered 'Ay	L3
And men to soar ' for as that other gazed	S2
Shading his eyes till all the fiery cloud	S2
The prophet and the chariot and the steeds	K
Suck'd into oneness like a little star	M2
Were drunk into the inmost blue we stood	S2
When first we came from out the pines at noon	M3
With hands for eaves uplooking and almost	S2
Waiting to see some blessed shape in heaven	P
So bathed we were in brilliance Never yet	S2
Before or after have I known the spring	L
Pour with such sudden deluges of light	S2
Into the middle summer for that day	S2
Love rising shook his wings and charged the winds	K
With spiced May sweets from bound to bound and blew	M2
Fresh fire into the sun and from within	I2
Burst thro' the heated buds and sent his soul	O
Into the songs of birds and touch'd far off	I
His mountain altars his high hills with flame	N3
Milder and purer	M2
	-
	-
	-
Thro' the rocks we wound	S2
The great pine shook with lonely sounds of joy	O3
That came on the sea wind As mountain streams	K
Our bloods ran free the sunshine seem'd to brood	S2
More warmly on the heart than on the brow	M2
We often paused and looking back we saw	K
The clefts and openings in the mountains fill'd	S2
With the blue valley and the glistening brooks	K
And all the low dark groves a land of love	I
A land of promise a land of memory	K
A land of promise flowing with the milk	P3
And honey of delicious memories	K
And down to sea and far as eye could ken	Q2
Each way from verge to verge a Holy Land	S2
Still growing holier as you near'd the bay	S2
For there the Temple stood	S2
	-
When we had reach'd	S2
The grassy platform on some hill I stoop'd	S2
I gather'd the wild herbs and for her brows	K
And mine made garlands of the selfsame flower	M2
Which she took smiling and with my work thus	K
Crown'd her clear forehead Once or twice she told me	K
For I remember all things to let grow	M2
The flowers that run poison in their veins	K
She said 'The evil flourish in the world '	-
Then playfully she gave herself the lie	O
'Nothing in nature is unbeautiful	O
So brother pluck and spare not ' So I wove	I
Ev'n the dull blooded poppy stem 'whose flower	M2
Hued with the scarlet of a fierce sunrise	K
Like to the wild youth of an evil prince	K
Is without sweetness but who crowns himself	I
Above the naked poisons of his heart	S2
In his old age ' A graceful thought of hers	K
Grav'n on my fancy And oh how like a nymph	I
A stately mountain nymph she look'd how native	I
Unto the hills she trod on While I gazed	S2
My coronal slowly disentwined itself	I
And fell between us both tho' while I gazed	S2
My spirit leap'd as with those thrills of bliss	K
That strike across the soul in prayer and show us	K
That we are surely heard Methought a light	S2
Burst from the garland I had wov'n and stood	S2
A solid glory on her bright black hair	M2
A light methought broke from her dark dark eyes	K
And shot itself into the singing winds	K
A mystic light flash'd ev'n from her white robe	Q3
As from a glass in the sun and fell about	S2
My footsteps on the mountains	K
	-
Last we came	N3
To what our people call 'The Hill of Woe '	-
A bridge is there that look'd at from beneath	M
Seems but a cobweb filament to link	R3
The yawning of an earthquake cloven chasm	W2
And thence one night when all the winds ere loud	S2
A woful man for so the story went	S2
Had thrust his wife and child and dash'd himself	I
Into the dizzy depth below Below	O
Fierce in the strength of far descent a stream	S3
Flies with a shatter'd foam along the chasm	W2
The path was perilous loosely strown with crags	K
We mounted slowly yet to both there came	N3
The joy of life in steepness overcome	W2
And victories of ascent and looking down	T3
On all that had look'd down on us and joy	O3
In breathing nearer heaven and joy to me	K
High over all the azure circled earth	M
To breathe with her as if in heaven itself	I
And more than joy that I to her became	N3
Her guardian and her angel raising her	M2
Still higher past all peril until she saw	K
Beneath her feet the region far away	S2
Beyond the nearest mountain's bosky brows	K
Arise in open prospect heath and hill	O
And hollow lined and wooded to the lips	K
And steep down walls of battlemented rock	U3
Gilded with broom or shatter'd into spires	K
And glory of broad waters interfused	S2
Whence rose as it were breath and steam of gold	S2
And over all the great wood rioting	L
And climbing streak'd or starr'd at intervals	K
With falling brook or blossom'd bush and last	S2
Framing the mighty landscape to the west	S2
A purple range of mountain cones between	V
Whose interspaces gush'd in blinding bursts	K
The incorporate blaze of sun and sea	K
	-
At length	M
Descending from the point and standing both	M
There on the tremulous bridge that from beneath	M
Had seem'd a gossamer filament up in air	M2
We paused amid the splendour All the west	S2
And ev'n unto the middle south was ribb'd	S2
And barr'd with bloom on bloom The sun below	O
Held for a space 'twixt cloud and wave shower'd down	T3
Rays of a mighty circle weaving over	M2
That various wilderness a tissue of light	S2
Unparallel'd On the other side the moon	M3
Half melted into thin blue air stood still	O
And pale and fibrous as a wither'd leaf	I
Nor yet endured in presence of His eyes	K
To indue his lustre most unloverlike	L
Since in his absence full of light and joy	O3
And giving light to others But this most	S2
Next to her presence whom I loved so well	O
Spoke loudly even into my inmost heart	S2
As to my outward hearing the loud stream	S3
Forth issuing from his portals in the crag	L
A visible link unto the home of my heart	S2
Ran amber toward the west and nigh the sea	K
Parting my own loved mountains was received	S2
Shorn of its strength into the sympathy	K
Of that small bay which out to open main	N2
Glow'd intermingling close beneath the sun	P
Spirit of Love that little hour was bound	S2
Shut in from Time and dedicate to thee	K
Thy fires from heaven had touch'd it and the earth	M
They fell on became hallow'd evermore	M2
	-
We turn'd our eyes met hers were bright and mine	K3
Were dim with floating tears that shot the sunset	S2
In lightnings round me and my name was borne	B3
Upon her breath henceforth my name has been	I2
A hallow'd memory like the names of old	S2
A center'd glory circled memory	K
And a peculiar treasure brooking not	S2
Exchange or currency and in that hour	M2
A hope flow'd round me like a golden mist	S2
Charm'd amid eddies of melodious airs	K
A moment ere the onward whirlwind shatter it	S2
Waver'd and floated which was less than Hope	Y
Because it lack'd the power of perfect Hope	Y
But which was more and higher than all Hope	Y
Because all other Hope had lower aim	N3
Even that this name to which her gracious lips	K
Did lend such gentle utterance this one name	N3
In some obscure hereafter might in wreathe	M
How lovelier nobler then her life her love	I
With my life love soul spirit and heart and strength	M
'Brother ' she said 'let this be call'd henceforth	M
The Hill of Hope 'and I replied 'O sister	M2
My will is one with thine the Hill of Hope '	-
Nevertheless we did not change the name	N3
	-
I did not speak I could not speak my love	I
Love lieth deep Love dwells not in lip depths	K
Love wraps his wings on either side the heart	S2
Constraining it with kisses close and warm	A2
Absorbing all the incense of sweet thoughts	K
So that they pass not to the shrine of sound	S2
Else had the life of that delighted hour	M2
Drunk in the largeness of the utterance	K
Of Love but how should Earthly measure mete	S2
The Heavenly unmeasured or unlimited Love	I
Who scarce can tune his high majestic sense	K
Unto the thundersong that wheels the spheres	K
Scarce living in the olian harmony	K
And flowing odour of the spacious air	M2
Scarce housed within the circle of this Earth	M
Be cabin'd up in words and syllables	K
Which pass with that which breathes them Sooner Earth	M
Might go round Heaven and the strait girth of Time	X2
Inswathe the fulness of Eternity	K
Than language grasp the infinite of Love	I
	-
O day which did enwomb that happy hour	M2
Thou art blessed in the years divinest day	S2
O Genius of that hour which dost uphold	S2
Thy coronal of glory like a God	S2
Amid thy melancholy mates far seen	V
Who walk before thee ever turning round	S2
To gaze upon thee till their eyes are dim	V3
With dwelling on the light and depth of thine	K3
Thy name is ever worshipp'd among hours	K
Had I died then I had not seem'd to die	S2
For bliss stood round me like the light of Heaven	P
Had I died then I had not known the death	M
Yea had the Power from whose right hand the light	S2
Of Life issueth and from whose left hand floweth	M
The Shadow of Death perennial eflluences	K
Whereof to all that draw the wholesome air	M2
Somewhile the one must overflow the other	M2
Then had he stemm'd my day with night and driven	P
My current to the fountain whence it sprang	L
Even his own abiding excellence	K
On me methinks that shock of gloom had fall'n	Q2
Unfelt and in this glory I had merged	S2
The other like the sun I gazed upon	W3
Which seeming for the moment due to death	M
And dipping his head low beneath the verge	X3
Yet bearing round about him his own day	S2
In confidence of unabated strength	M
Steppeth from Heaven to Heaven from light to light	S2
And holdeth his undimmed forehead far	M2
Into a clearer zenith pure of cloud	S2
	-
We trod the shadow of the downward hill	O
We past from light to dark On the other side	S2
Is scoop'd a cavern and a mountain hall	O
Which none have fathom'd If you go far in	I2
The country people rumour you may hear	M2
The moaning of the woman and the child	S2
Shut in the secret chambers of the rock	L
I too have heard a sound perchance of streams	K
Running far on within its inmost halls	K
The home of darkness but the cavern mouth	M
Half overtrailed with a wanton weed	S2
Gives birth to a brawling brook that passing lightly	K
Adown a natural stair of tangled roots	K
Is presently received in a sweet grave	I
Of eglantines a place of burial	O
Far lovelier than its cradle for unseen	V
But taken with the sweetness of the place	K
It makes a constant bubbling melody	K
That drowns the nearer echoes Lower down	T3
Spreads out a little lake that flooding leaves	K
Low banks of yellow sand and from the woods	K
That belt it rise three dark tall cypresses	K
Three cypresses symbols of mortal woe	O
That men plant over graves	K
	-
Hither we came	N3
And sitting down upon the golden moss	K
Held converse sweet and low low converse sweet	S2
In which our voices bore least part The wind	S2
Told a lovetale beside us how he woo'd	S2
The waters and the waters answering lisp'd	S2
To kisses of the wind that sick with love	I
Fainted at intervals and grew again	Q2
To utterance of passion Ye cannot shape	Y3
Fancy so fair as is this memory	K
Methought all excellence that ever was	K
Had drawn herself from many thousand years	K
And all the separate Edens of this earth	M
To centre in this place and time I listen'd	S2
And her words stole with most prevailing sweetness	K
Into my heart as thronging fancies come	W2
To boys and girls when summer days are new	M2
And soul and heart and body are all at ease	K
What marvel my Camilla told me all	O
It was so happy an hour so sweet a place	K
And I was as the brother of her blood	S2
And by that name I moved upon her breath	M
Dear name which had too much of nearness in it	S2
And heralded the distance of this time	X2
At first her voice was very sweet and low	O
As if she were afraid of utterance	K
But in the onward current of her speech	E3
As echoes of the hollow banked brooks	K
Are fashion'd by the channel which they keep	C3
Her words did of their meaning borrow sound	S2
Her cheek did catch the colour of her words	K
I heard and trembled yet I could but hear	M2
My heart paused my raised eyelids would not fall	O
But still I kept my eyes upon the sky	S2
I seem'd the only part of Time stood still	O
And saw the motion of all other things	K
While her words syllable by syllable	O
Like water drop by drop upon my ear	M2
Fell and I wish'd yet wish'd her not to speak	L
But she spake on for I did name no wish	T2
What marvel my Camilla told me all	O
Her maiden dignities of Hope and Love	I
'Perchance ' she said 'return'd ' Even then the stars	K
Did tremble in their stations as I gazed	S2
But she spake on for I did name no wish	T2
No wish no hope Hope was not wholly dead	S2
But breathing hard at the approach of Death	M
Camilla my Camilla who was mine	K3
No longer in the dearest sense of mine	K3
For all the secret of her inmost heart	S2
And all the maiden empire of her mind	S2
Lay like a map before me and I saw	K
There where I hoped myself to reign as king	L
There where that day I crown'd myself as king	L
There in my realm and even on my throne	E2
Another then it seem'd as tho' a link	L
Of some tight chain within my inmost frame	N3
Was riven in twain that life I heeded not	S2
Flow'd from me and the darkness of the grave	I
The darkness of the grave and utter night	S2
Did swallow up my vision at her feet	S2
Even the feet of her I loved I fell	O
Smit with exceeding sorrow unto Death	M
	-
Then had the earth beneath me yawning cloven	E2
With such a sound as when an iceberg splits	K
From cope to base had Heaven from all her doors	K
With all her golden thresholds clashing roll'd	S2
Her heaviest thunder I had lain as dead	S2
Mute blind and motionless as then I lay	S2
Dead for henceforth there was no life for me	K
Mute for henceforth what use were words to me	K
Blind for the day was as the night to me	K
The night to me was kinder than the day	S2
The night in pity took away my day	S2
Because my grief as yet was newly born	E2
Of eyes too weak to look upon the light	S2
And thro' the hasty notice of the ear	M2
Frail Life was startled from the tender love	I
Of him she brooded over Would I had lain	E2
Until the plaited ivy tress had wound	S2
Round my worn limbs and the wild brier had driven	E2
Its knotted thorns thro' my unpaining brows	K
Leaning its roses on my faded eyes	K
The wind had blown above me and the rain	E2
Had fall'n upon me and the gilded snake	L
Had nestled in this bosom throne of Love	I
But I had been at rest for evermore	M2
	-
Longtime entrancement held me All too soon	E2
Life like a wanton too officious friend	S2
Who will not hear denial vain and rude	S2
With proffer of unwished for services	K
Entering all the avenues of sense	K
Past thro' into his citadel the brain	E2
With hated warmth of apprehensiveness	K
And first the chillness of the sprinkled brook	L
Smote on my brows and then I seem'd to hear	M2
Its murmur as the drowning seaman hears	K
Who with his head below the surface dropt	S2
Listens the muffled booming indistinct	S2
Of the confused floods and dimly knows	K
His head shall rise no more and then came in	E2
The white light of the weary moon above	I
Diffused and molten into flaky cloud	S2
Was my sight drunk that it did shape to me	K
Him who should own that name Were it not well	O
If so be that the echo of that name	N3
Ringing within the fancy had updrawn	E2
A fashion and a phantasm of the form	A2
It should attach to Phantom had the ghastliest	S2
That ever lusted for a body sucking	L
The foul steam of the grave to thicken by it	S2
There in the shuddering moonlight brought its face	K
And what it has for eyes as close to mine	E2
As he did better that than his than he	K
The friend the neighbour Lionel the beloved	S2
The loved the lover the happy Lionel	O
The low voiced tender spirited Lionel	O
All joy to whom my agony was a joy	O3
O how her choice did leap forth from his eyes	K
O how her love did clothe itself in smiles	K
About his lips and not one moment's grace	K
Then when the effect weigh'd seas upon my head	S2
To come my way to twit me with the cause	K
	-
Was not the land as free thro' all her ways	K
To him as me Was not his wont to walk	L
Between the going light and growing night	S2
Had I not learnt my loss before he came	N3
Could that be more because he came my way	S2
Why should he not come my way if he would	S2
And yet to night to night when all my wealth	M
Flash'd from me in a moment and I fell	O
Beggar'd for ever why should he come my way	S2
Robed in those robes of light I must not wear	M2
With that great crown of beams about his brows	K
Come like an angel to a damned soul	O
To tell him of the bliss he had with God	S2
Come like a careless and a greedy heir	M2
That scarce can wait the reading of the will	O
Before he takes possession Was mine a mood	S2
To be invaded rudely and not rather	M2
A sacred secret unapproached woe	O
Unspeakable I was shut up with Grief	I
She took the body of my past delight	S2
Narded and swathed and balm'd it for herself	I
And laid it in a sepulchre of rock	L
Never to rise again I was led mute	S2
Into her temple like a sacrifice	K
I was the High Priest in her holiest place	K
Not to be loudly broken in upon	E2
	-
Oh friend thoughts deep and heavy as these well nigh	S2
O'erbore the limits of my brain but he	K
Bent o'er me and my neck his arm up stay'd	S2
I thought it was an adder's fold and once	K
I strove to disengage myself but fail'd	S2
Being so feeble she bent above me too	S2
Wan was her cheek for whatsoe'er of blight	S2
Lives in the dewy touch of pity had made	S2
The red rose there a pale one and her eyes	K
I saw the moonlight glitter on their tears	K
And some few drops of that distressful rain	E2
Fell on my face and her long ringlets moved	S2
Drooping and beaten by the breeze and brush'd	S2
My fallen forehead in their to and fro	O
For in the sudden anguish of her heart	S2
Loosed from their simple thrall they had flow'd abroad	S2
And floated on and parted round her neck	L
Mantling her form halfway She when I woke	L
Something she ask'd I know not what and ask'd	S2
Unanswer'd since I spoke not for the sound	S2
Of that dear voice so musically low	O
And now first heard with any sense of pain	E2
As it had taken life away before	M2
Choked all the syllables that strove to rise	K
From my full heart	S2
	-
The blissful lover too	S2
From his great hoard of happiness distill'd	S2
Some drops of solace like a vain rich man	E2
That having always prosper'd in the world	S2
Folding his hands deals comfortable words	K
To hearts wounded for ever yet in truth	M
Fair speech was his and delicate of phrase	K
Falling in whispers on the sense address'd	S2
More to the inward than the outward ear	M2
As rain of the midsummer midnight soft	S2
Scarce heard recalling fragrance and the green	E2
Of the dead spring but mine was wholly dead	S2
No bud no leaf no flower no fruit for me	K
Yet who had done or who had suffer'd wrong	L
And why was I to darken their pure love	I
If as I found they two did love each other	M2
Because my own was darken'd Why was I	S2
To cross between their happy star and them	J2
To stand a shadow by their shining doors	K
And vex them with my darkness Did I love her	M2
Ye know that I did love her to this present	S2
My full orb'd love has waned not Did I love her	M2
And could I look upon her tearful eyes	K
What had she done to weep Why should she weep	C3
O innocent of spirit let my heart	S2
Break rather whom the gentlest airs of Heaven	E2
Should kiss with an unwonted gentleness	K
Her love did murder mine What then She deem'd	S2
I wore a brother's mind she call'd me brother	M2
She told me all her love she shall not weep	C3
	-
The brightness of a burning thought awhile	O
In battle with the glooms of my dark will	O
Moonlike emerged and to itself lit up	Z2
There on the depth of an unfathom'd woe	O
Reflex of action Starting up at once	K
As from a dismal dream of my own death	M
I for I loved her lost my love in Love	I
I for I loved her graspt the hand she lov'd	S2
And laid it in her own and sent my cry	S2
Thro' the blank night to Him who loving made	S2
The happy and the unhappy love that He	K
Would hold the hand of blessing over them	J2
Lionel the happy and her and her his bride	S2
Let them so love that men and boys may say	S2
'Lo how they love each other ' till their love	I
Shall ripen to a proverb unto all	O
Known when their faces are forgot in the land	S2
One golden dream of love from which may death	M
Awake them with heaven's music in a life	I
More living to some happier happiness	K
Swallowing its precedent in victory	K
And as for me Camilla as for me	K
The dew of tears is an unwholesome dew	S2
They will but sicken the sick plant the more	M2
Deem that I love thee but as brothers do	S2
So shalt thou love me still as sisters do	S2
Or if thou dream aught farther dream but how	M2
I could have loved thee had there been none else	K
To love as lovers loved again by thee	K
	-
Or this or somewhat like to this I spake	L
When I beheld her weep so ruefully	K
For sure my love should ne'er indue the front	S2
And mask of Hate who lives on others' moans	K
Shall Love pledge Hatred in her bitter draughts	K
And batten on her poisons Love forbid	S2
Love passeth not the threshold of cold Hate	S2
And hate is strange beneath the roof of Love	I
O Love if thou be'st Love dry up these tears	K
Shed for the love of Love for tho' mine image	Y2
The subject of thy power be cold in her	M2
Yet like cold snow it melteth in the source	K
Of these sad tears and feeds their downward flow	O
So Love arraign'd to judgment and to death	M
Received unto himself a part of blame	N3
Being guiltless as an innocent prisoner	M2
Who when the woful sentence hath been past	S2
And all the clearness of his fame hath gone	E2
Beneath the shadow of the curse of man	E2
First falls asleep in swoon wherefrom awaked	S2
And looking round upon his tearful friends	K
Forthwith and in his agony conceives	K
A shameful sense as of a cleaving crime	X2
For whence without some guilt should such grief be	K
	-
So died that hour and fell into the abysm	X2
Of forms outworn but not to me outworn	E2
Who never hail'd another was there one	E2
There might be one one other worth the life	I
That made it sensible So that hour died	S2
Like odour rapt into the winged wind	S2
Borne into alien lands and far away	S2
	-
There be some hearts so airily built that they	S2
They when their love is wreck'd if Love can wreck	L
On that sharp ridge of utmost doom ride highly	K
Above the perilous seas of Change and Chance	K
Nay more hold out the lights of cheerfulness	K
As the tall ship that many a dreary year	M2
Knit to some dismal sandbank far at sea	K
All thro' the livelong hours of utter dark	L
Showers slanting light upon the dolorous wave	I
For me what light what gleam on those black ways	K
Where Love could walk with banish'd Hope no more	M2
	-
It was ill done to part you Sisters fair	M2
Love's arms were wreath'd about the neck of Hope	Y
And Hope kiss'd Love and Love drew in her breath	M
In that close kiss and drank her whisper'd tales	K
They said that Love would die when Hope was gone	E2
And Love mourn'd long and sorrow'd after Hope	Y
At last she sought out Memory and they trod	S2
The same old paths where Love had walk'd with Hope	Y
And Memory fed the soul of Love with tears	K
	-
	-
	-
II	S2
From that time forth I would not see her more	M2
But many weary moons I lived alone	E2
Alone and in the heart of the great forest	S2
Sometimes upon the hills beside the sea	K
All day I watch'd the floating isles of shade	S2
And sometimes on the shore upon the sands	K
Insensibly I drew her name until	O
The meaning of the letters shot into	S2
My brain anon the wanton billow wash'd	S2
Them over till they faded like my love	I
The hollow caverns heard me the black brooks	K
Of the midforest heard me the soft winds	K
Laden with thistledown and seeds of flowers	K
Paused in their course to hear me for my voice	K
Was all of thee the merry linnet knew me	K
The squirrel knew me and the dragonfly	O
Shot by me like a flash of purple fire	M2
The rough brier tore my bleeding palms the hemlock	L
Brow high did strike my forehead as I past	S2
Yet trod I not the wildflower in my path	M
Nor bruised the wildbird's egg	L
	-
Was this the end	S2
Why grew we then together in one plot	S2
Why fed we from one fountain drew one sun	E2
Why were our mothers' branches of one stem	X2
Why were we one in all things save in that	S2
Where to have been one had been the cope and crown	E2
Of all I hoped and fear'd if that same nearness	K
Were father to this distance and that one	E2
Vauntcourier to this double if Affection	E2
Living slew Love and Sympathy hew'd out	S2
The bosom sepulchre of Sympathy	K
	-
Chiefly I sought the cavern and the hill	O
Where last we roam'd together for the sound	S2
Of the loud stream was pleasant and the wind	S2
Came wooingly with woodbine smells Sometimes	K
All day I sat within the cavern mouth	M
Fixing my eyes on those three cypress cones	K
That spired above the wood and with mad hand	S2
Tearing the bright leaves of the ivy screen	E2
I cast them in the noisy brook beneath	M
And watch'd them till they vanish'd from my sight	S2
Beneath the bower of wreathed eglantines	K
And all the fragments of the living rock	L
Huge blocks which some old trembling of the world	S2
I lad loosen'd from the mountain till they fell	O
Half digging their own graves these in my agony	K
Did I make bare of all the golden moss	K
Wherewith the dashing runnel in the spring	L
Had liveried them all over In my brain	E2
The spirit seem'd to flag from thought to thought	S2
As moonlight wandering thro' a mist my blood	S2
Crept like marsh drains thro' all my languid limbs	K
The motions of my heart seem'd far within me	K
Unfrequent low as tho' it told its pulses	K
And yet it shook me that my frame would shudder	M2
As if 'twere drawn asunder by the rack	L
But over the deep graves of Hope and Fear	M2
And all the broken palaces of the Past	S2
Brooded one master passion evermore	M2
Like to a low hung and a fiery sky	S2
Above some fair metropolis earth shock'd	S2
Hung round with ragged rims and burning folds	K
Embathing all with wild and woful hues	K
Great hills of ruins and collapsed masses	K
Of thundershaken columns indistinct	S2
And fused together in the tyrannous light	S2
Ruins the ruin of all my life and me	K
	-
Sometimes I thought Camilla was no more	M2
Some one had told me she was dead and ask'd	S2
If I would see her burial then I seem'd	S2
To rise and through the forest shadow borne	E2
With more than mortal swiftness I ran down	E2
The steepy sea bank till I came upon	E2
The rear of a procession curving round	S2
The silver sheeted bay in front of which	Z3
Six stately virgins all in white upbare	M2
A broad earth sweeping pall of whitest lawn	E2
Wreathed round the bier with garlands in the distance	K
From out the yellow woods upon the hill	O
Look'd forth the summit and the pinnacles	K
Of a gray steeple thence at intervals	K
A low bell tolling All the pageantry	M2
Save those six virgins which upheld the bier	M2
Were stoled from head to foot in flowing black	L
One walk'd abreast with me and veil'd his brow	M2
And he was loud in weeping and in praise	K
Of her we follow'd a strong sympathy	M2
Shook all my soul I flung myself upon him	X2
In tears and cries I told him all my love	I
How I had loved her from the first whereat	S2
He shrank and howl'd and from his brow drew back	L
His hand to push me from him and the face	K
The very face and form of Lionel	O
Flash'd thro' my eyes into my innermost brain	E2
And at his feet I seem'd to faint and fall	O
To fall and die away I could not rise	K
Albeit I strove to follow They past on	E2
The lordly Phantasms in their floating folds	K
They past and were no more but I had fallen	E2
Prone by the dashing runnel on the grass	K
	-
Alway the inaudible invisible thought	S2
Artificer and subject lord and slave	I
Shaped by the audible and visible	O
Moulded the audible and visible	O
All crisped sounds of wave and leaf and wind	S2
Flatter'd the fancy of my fading brain	E2
The cloud pavilion'd element the wood	S2
The mountain the three cypresses the cave	I
Storm sunset glows and glories of the moon	E2
Below black firs when silent creeping winds	K
Laid the long night in silver streaks and bars	K
Were wrought into the tissue of my dream	X2
The moanings in the forest the loud brook	L
Cries of the partridge like a rusty key	M2
Turn'd in a lock owl whoop and dor hawk whirr	M2
Awoke me not but were a part of sleep	C3
And voices in the distance calling to me	M2
And in my vision bidding me dream on	E2
Like sounds without the twilight realm of dreams	K
Which wander round the bases of the hills	K
And murmur at the low dropt eaves of sleep	C3
Half entering the portals Oftentimes	K
The vision had fair prelude in the end	S2
Opening on darkness stately vestibules	K
To caves and shows of Death whether the mind	S2
With some revenge even to itself unknown	E2
Made strange division of its suffering	L
With her whom to have suffering view'd had been	E2
Extremest pain or that the clear eyed Spirit	S2
Being blunted in the Present grew at length	M
Prophetical and prescient of whate'er	M2
The Future had in store or that which most	S2
Enchains belief the sorrow of my spirit	S2
Was of so wide a compass it took in	E2
All I had loved and my dull agony	M2
Ideally to her transferr'd became	X2
Anguish intolerable	O
	-
The day waned	S2
Alone I sat with her about my brow	M2
Her warm breath floated in the utterance	K
Of silver chorded tones her lips were sunder'd	S2
With smiles of tranquil bliss which broke in light	S2
Like morning from her eyes her eloquent eyes	K
As I have seen them many a hundred times	K
Fill'd all with pure clear fire thro' mine down rain'd	S2
Their spirit searching splendours As a vision	E2
Unto a haggard prisoner iron stay'd	S2
In damp and dismal dungeons underground	S2
Confined on points of faith when strength is shock'd	S2
With torment and expectancy of worse	K
Upon the morrow thro' the ragged walls	K
All unawares before his half shut eyes	K
Comes in upon him in the dead of night	S2
And with the excess of sweetness and of awe	A4
Makes the heart tremble and the sight run over	M2
Upon his steely gyves so those fair eyes	K
Shone on my darkness forms which ever stood	S2
Within the magic cirque of memory	M2
Invisible but deathless waiting still	O
The edict of the will to reassume	X2
The semblance of those rare realities	K
Of which they were the mirrors Now the light	S2
Which was their life burst through the cloud of thought	S2
Keen irrepressible	O
	-
It was a room	X2
Within the summer house of which I spake	L
Hung round with paintings of the sea and one	E2
A vessel in mid ocean her heaved prow	M2
Clambering the mast bent and the ravin wind	S2
In her sail roaring From the outer day	S2
Betwixt the close set ivies came a broad	S2
And solid beam of isolated light	S2
Crowded with driving atomies and fell	O
Slanting upon that picture from prime youth	M
Well known well loved She drew it long ago	O
Forthgazing on the waste and open sea	M2
One morning when the upblown billow ran	E2
Shoreward beneath red clouds and I had pour'd	S2
Into the shadowing pencil's naked forms	K
Colour and life it was a bond and seal	O
Of friendship spoken of with tearful smiles	K
A monument of childhood and of love	I
The poesy of childhood my lost love	I
Symbol'd in storm We gazed on it together	M2
In mute and glad remembrance and each heart	S2
Grew closer to the other and the eye	S2
Was riveted and charm bound gazing like	L
The Indian on a still eyed snake low couch'd	S2
A beauty which is death when all at once	K
That painted vessel as with inner life	I
Began to heave upon that painted sea	M2
An earthquake my loud heart beats made the ground	S2
Reel under us and all at once soul life	I
And breath and motion past and flow'd away	S2
To those unreal billows round and round	S2
A whirlwind caught and bore us mighty gyres	M2
Rapid and vast of hissing spray wind driven	E2
Far thro' the dizzy dark Aloud she shriek'd	S2
My heart was cloven with pain I wound my arms	M2
About her we whirl'd giddily the wind	S2
Sung but I clasp'd her without fear her weight	S2
Shrank in my grasp and over my dim eyes	M2
And parted lips which drank her breath down hung	L
The jaws of Death I groaning from me flung	L
Her to empty phantom all the sway and whirl	O
Of the storm dropt to windless calm and I	S2
Down welter'd thro' the dark ever and ever	M2
	-
	-
	-
III	S2
I came one day and sat among the stones	M2
Strewn in the entry of the moaning cave	I
A morning air sweet after rain ran over	M2
The rippling levels of the lake and blew	O
Coolness and moisture and all smells of bud	S2
And foliage from the dark and dripping woods	M2
Upon my fever'd brows that shook and throbb'd	S2
From temple unto temple To what height	S2
The day had grown I know not Then came on me	M2
The hollow tolling of the bell and all	O
The vision of the bier As heretofore	M2
I walk'd behind with one who veil'd his brow	M2
Methought by slow degrees the sullen bell	O
Toll'd quicker and the breakers on the shore	M2
Sloped into louder surf those that went with me	M2
And those that held the bier before my face	M2
Moved with one spirit round about the bay	S2
Trod swifter steps and while I walk'd with these	M2
In marvel at that gradual change I thought	S2
Four bells instead of one began to ring	L
Four merry bells four merry marriage bells	M2
In clanging cadence jangling peal on peal	O
A long loud clash of rapid marriage bells	M2
Then those who led the van and those in rear	M2
Rush'd into dance and like wild Bacchanals	M2
Fled onward to the steeple in the woods	M2
I too was borne along and felt the blast	S2
Beat on my heated eyelids all at once	M2
The front rank made a sudden halt the bells	M2
Lapsed into frightful stillness the surge fell	O
From thunder into whispers those six maids	M2
With shrieks and ringing laughter on the sand	S2
Threw down the bier the woods upon the hill	O
Waved with a sudden gust that sweeping down	E2
Took the edges of the pall and blew it far	M2
Until it hung a little silver cloud	S2
Over the sounding seas I turn'd my heart	S2
Shrunk in me like a snowflake in the hand	S2
Waiting to see the settled countenance	M2
Of her I loved adorn'd with fading flowers	M2
But she from out her death like chrysalis	M2
She from her bier as into fresher life	I
My sister and my cousin and my love	I
Leapt lightly clad in bridal white her hair	M2
Studded with one rich Provence rose a light	S2
Of smiling welcome round her lips her eyes	M2
And cheeks as bright as when she climb'd the hill	O
One hand she reach'd to those that came behind	S2
And while I mused nor yet endured to take	L
So rich a prize the man who stood with me	M2
Stept gaily forward throwing down his robes	M2
And claspt her hand in his again the bells	M2
Jangled and clang'd again the stormy surf	I
Crash'd in the shingle and the whirling rout	S2
Led by those two rush'd into dance and fled	S2
Wind footed to the steeple in the woods	M2
Till they were swallow'd in the leafy bowers	M2
And I stood sole beside the vacant bier	M2
	-
There there my latest vision then the event	S2
	-
	-
	-
IV	I
	-
THE GOLDEN SUPPER	M2
	-
Another speaks	M2
	-
He flies the event he leaves the event to me	M2
Poor Julian how he rush'd away the bells	M2
Those marriage bells echoing in ear and heart	S2
But cast a parting glance at me you saw	M2
As who should say 'Continue ' Well he had	S2
One golden hour of triumph shall I say	M2
Solace at least before he left his home	X2
	-
Would you had seen him in that hour of his	M2
He moved thro' all of it majestically	M2
Restrain'd himself quite to the close but now	M2
	-
Whether they were his lady's marriage bells	M2
Or prophets of them in his fantasy	M2
I never ask'd but Lionel and the girl	O
Were wedded and our Julian came again	E2
Back to his mother's house among the pines	M2
But these their gloom the mountains and the Bay	M2
The whole land weigh'd him down as tna does	M2
The Giant of Mythology he would go	O
Would leave the land for ever and had gone	E2
Surely but for a whisper 'Go not yet '	-
Some warning sent divinely as it seem'd	S2
By that which follow'd but of this I deem	X2
As of the visions that he told the event	S2
Glanced back upon them in his after life	I
And partly made them tho' he knew it not	S2
	-
And thus he stay'd and would not look at her	M2
No not for months but when the eleventh moon	E2
After their marriage lit the lover's Bay	M2
Heard yet once more the tolling bell and said	S2
Would you could toll me out of life but found	S2
All softly as his mother broke it to him	X2
A crueller reason than a crazy ear	M2
For that low knell tolling his lady dead	S2
Dead and had lain three days without a pulse	M2
All that look'd on her had pronounced her dead	S2
And so they bore her for in Julian's land	S2
They never nail a dumb head up in elm	X2
Bore her free faced to the free airs of heaven	E2
And laid her in the vault of her own kin	E2
	-
What did he then not die he is here and hale	O
Not plunge headforemost from the mountain there	M2
And leave the name of Lover's Leap not he	M2
He knew the meaning of the whisper now	M2
Thought that he knew it 'This I stay'd for this	M2
O love I have not seen you for so long	L
Now now will I go down into the grave	I
I will be all alone with all I love	I
And kiss her on the lips She is his no more	M2
The dead returns to me and I go down	E2
To kiss the dead '	-
	-
The fancy stirr'd him so	O
He rose and went and entering the dim vault	S2
And making there a sudden light beheld	S2
All round about him that which all will be	M2
The light was but a flash and went again	E2
Then at the far end of the vault he saw	M2
His lady with the moonlight on her face	M2
Her breast as in a shadow prison bars	M2
Of black and bands of silver which the moon	E2
Struck from an open grating overhead	S2
High in the wall and all the rest of her	M2
Drown'd in the gloom and horror of the vault	S2
	-
'It was my wish ' he said 'to pass to sleep	C3
To rest to be with her till the great day	S2
Peal'd on us with that music which rights all	O
And raised us hand in hand ' And kneeling there	M2
Down in the dreadful dust that once was man	E2
Dust as he said that once was loving hearts	M2
Hearts that had beat with such a love as mine	E2
Not such as mine no nor for such as her	M2
He softly put his arm about her neck	L
And kiss'd her more than once till helpless death	M
And silence made him bold nay but I wrong him	X2
He reverenced his dear lady even in death	M
But placing his true hand upon her heart	S2
'O you warm heart ' he moan'd 'not even death	M
Can chill you all at once ' then starting thought	S2
His dreams had come again 'Do I wake or sleep	C3
Or am I made immortal or my love	I
Mortal once more ' It beat the heart it beat	S2
Faint but it beat at which his own began	E2
To pulse with such a vehemence that it drown'd	S2
The feebler motion underneath his hand	S2
But when at last his doubts were satisfied	S2
He raised her softly from the sepulchre	M2
And wrapping her all over with the cloak	L
He came in and now striding fast and now	M2
Sitting awhile to rest but evermore	M2
Holding his golden burthen in his arms	M2
So bore her thro' the solitary land	S2
Back to the mother's house where she was born	E2
	-
There the good mother's kindly ministering	L
With half a night's appliances recall'd	S2
Her fluttering life she rais'd an eye that ask'd	S2
'Where ' till the things familiar to her youth	M
Had made a silent answer then she spoke	L
'Here and how came I here ' and learning it	S2
They told her somewhat rashly as I think	L
At once began to wander and to wail	O
'Ay but you know that you must give me back	L
Send bid him come ' but Lionel was away	S2
Stung by his loss had vanish'd none knew where	M2
'He casts me out ' she wept 'and goes' a wail	O
That seeming something yet was nothing born	E2
Not from believing mind but shatter'd nerve	I
Yet haunting Julian as her own reproof	I
At some precipitance in her burial	O
Then when her own true spirit had return'd	S2
'Oh yes and you ' she said 'and none but you	O
For you have given me life and love again	E2
And none but you yourself shall tell him of it	S2
And you shall give me back when he returns '	-
'Stay then a little ' answer'd Julian 'here	M2
And keep yourself none knowing to yourself	I
And I will do your will I may not stay	S2
No not an hour but send me notice of him	X2
When he returns and then will I return	E2
And I will make a solemn offering of you	O
To him you love ' And faintly she replied	S2
'And I will do your will and none shall know '	-
	-
Not know with such a secret to be known	E2
But all their house was old and loved them both	M
And all the house had known the loves of both	M
Had died almost to serve them any way	S2
And all the land was waste and solitary	M2
And then he rode away but after this	M2
An hour or two Camilla's travail came	X2
Upon her and that day a boy was born	E2
Heir of his face and land to Lionel	O
	-
And thus our lonely lover rode away	S2
And pausing at a hostel in a marsh	B4
There fever seized upon him myself was then	E2
Travelling that land and meant to rest an hour	M2
And sitting down to such a base repast	S2
It makes me angry yet to speak of it	S2
I heard a groaning overhead and climb'd	S2
The moulder'd stairs for everything was vile	O
And in a loft with none to wait on him	X2
Found as it seem'd a skeleton alone	E2
Raving of dead men's dust and beating hearts	M2
	-
A dismal hostel in a dismal land	S2
A flat malarian world of reed and rush	C4
But there from fever and my care of him	X2
Sprang up a friendship that may help us yet	S2
For while we roam'd along the dreary coast	S2
And waited for her message piece by piece	M2
I learnt the drearier story of his life	I
And tho' he loved and honour'd Lionel	O
Found that the sudden wail his lady made	S2
Dwelt in his fancy did he know her worth	M
Her beauty even should he not be taught	S2
Ev'n by the price that others set upon it	S2
The value of that jewel he had to guard	S2
	-
Suddenly came her notice and we past	S2
I with our lover to his native Bay	S2
	-
This love is of the brain the mind the soul	O
That makes the sequel pure tho' some of us	M2
Beginning at the sequel know no more	M2
Not such am I and yet I say the bird	S2
That will not hear my call however sweet	S2
But if my neighbour whistle answers him	X2
What matter there are others in the wood	S2
Yet when I saw her and I thought him crazed	S2
Tho' not with such a craziness as needs	M2
A cell and keeper those dark eyes of hers	M2
Oh such dark eyes and not her eyes alone	E2
But all from these to where she touch'd on earth	M
For such a craziness as Julian's look'd	S2
No less than one divine apology	M2
	-
So sweetly and so modestly she came	X2
To greet us her young hero in her arms	M2
'Kiss him ' she said 'You gave me life again	E2
He but for you had never seen it once	M2
His other father you Kiss him and then	E2
Forgive him if his name be Julian too '	-
	-
Talk of lost hopes and broken heart his own	E2
Sent such a flame into his face I knew	O
Some sudden vivid pleasure hit him there	M2
	-
But he was all the more resolved to go	O
And sent at once to Lionel praying him	X2
By that great love they both had borne the dead	S2
To come and revel for one hour with him	X2
Before he left the land for evermore	M2
And then to friends they were not many who lived	S2
Scatteringly about that lonely land of his	M2
And bad them to a banquet of farewells	M2
	-
And Julian made a solemn feast I never	M2
Sat at a costlier for all round his hall	O
From column on to column as in a wood	S2
Not such as here an equatorial one	E2
Great garlands swung and blossom'd and beneath	M
Heirlooms and ancient miracles of Art	S2
Chalice and salver wines that Heaven knows when	E2
Had suck'd the fire of some forgotten sun	E2
And kept it thro' a hundred years of gloom	X2
Yet glowing in a heart of ruby cups	M2
Where nymph and god ran ever round in gold	S2
Others of glass as costly some with gems	M2
Moveable and resettable at will	O
And trebling all the rest in value Ah heavens	M2
Why need I tell you all suffice to say	S2
That whatsoever such a house as his	M2
And his was old has in it rare or fair	M2
Was brought before the guest and they the guests	M2
Wonder'd at some strange light in Julian's eyes	M2
I told you that he had his golden hour	M2
And such a feast ill suited as it seem'd	S2
To such a time to Lionel's loss and his	M2
And that resolved self exile from a land	S2
He never would revisit such a feast	S2
So rich so strange and stranger ev'n than rich	Z3
But rich as for the nuptials of a king	L
	-
And stranger yet at one end of the hall	O
Two great funereal curtains looping down	E2
Parted a little ere they met the floor	M2
About a picture of his lady taken	E2
Some years before and falling hid the frame	X2
And just above the parting was a lamp	D4
So the sweet figure folded round with night	S2
Seem'd stepping out of darkness with a smile	O
	-
Well then our solemn feast we ate and drank	L
And might the wines being of such nobleness	M2
Have jested also but for Julian's eyes	M2
And something weird and wild about it all	O
What was it for our lover seldom spoke	L
Scarce touch'd the meats but ever and anon	E2
A priceless goblet with a priceless wine	E2
Arising show'd he drank beyond his use	M2
And when the feast was near an end he said	S2
	-
'There is a custom in the Orient friends	M2
I read of it in Persia when a man	E2
Will honour those who feast with him he brings	M2
And shows them whatsoever he accounts	M2
Of all his treasures the most beautiful	O
Gold jewels arms whatever it may be	M2
This custom '	-
	-
Pausing here a moment all	O
The guests broke in upon him with meeting hands	M2
And cries about the banquet 'Beautiful	O
Who could desire more beauty at a feast '	-
	-
The lover answer'd 'There is more than one	E2
Here sitting who desires it Laud me not	S2
Before my time but hear me to the close	M2
This custom steps yet further when the guest	S2
Is loved and honour'd to the uttermost	S2
For after he hath shown him gems or gold	S2
He brings and sets before him in rich guise	M2
That which is thrice as beautiful as these	M2
The beauty that is dearest to his heart	S2
O my heart's lord would I could show you he says	M2
Ev'n my heart too And I propose to night	S2
To show you what is clearest to my heart	S2
And my heart too	S2
	-
'But solve me first a doubt	S2
I knew a man nor many years ago	O
He had a faithful servant one who loved	S2
His master more than all on earth beside	S2
He falling sick and seeming close on death	M
His master would not wait until he died	S2
But bad his menials bear him from the door	M2
And leave him in the public way to die	S2
I knew another not so long ago	O
Who found the dying servant took him home	X2
And fed and cherish'd him and saved his life	I
I ask you now should this first master claim	X2
His service whom does it belong to him	X2
Who thrust him out or him who saved his life '	-
	-
This question so flung clown before the guests	M2
And balanced either way by each at length	M
When some were doubtful how the law would hold	S2
Was handed over by consent of all	O
To one who had not spoken Lionel	O
	-
Fair speech was his and delicate of phrase	M2
And he beginning languidly his loss	M2
Weigh'd on him yet but warming as he went	S2
Glanced at the point of law to pass it by	S2
Affirming that as long as either lived	S2
By all the laws of love and gratefulness	M2
The service of the one so saved was due	S2
All to the saver adding with a smile	O
The first for many weeks a semi smile	O
As at a strong conclusion 'body and soul	O
And life and limbs all his to work his will '	-
	-
Then Julian made a secret sign to me	M2
To bring Camilla down before them all	O
And crossing her own picture as she came	X2
And looking as much lovelier as herself	I
Is lovelier than all others on her head	S2
A diamond circlet and from under this	M2
A veil that seemed no more than gilded air	M2
Flying by each fine ear an Eastern gauze	M2
With seeds of gold so with that grace of hers	M2
Slow moving as a wave against the wind	S2
That flings a mist behind it in the sun	E2
And hearing high in arms the mighty babe	E4
The younger Julian who himself was crown'd	S2
With roses none so rosy as himself	I
And over all her babe and her the jewels	M2
Of many generations of his house	M2
Sparkled and flash'd for he had decked them out	S2
As for a solemn sacrifice of love	I
So she came in I am long in telling it	S2
I never yet beheld a thing so strange	F4
Sad sweet and strange together floated in	E2
While all the guests in mute amazement rose	M2
And slowly pacing to the middle hall	O
Before the board there paused and stood her breast	S2
Hard heaving and her eyes upon her feet	S2
Not daring yet to glance at Lionel	O
But him she carried him nor lights nor feast	S2
Dazed or amazed nor eyes of men who cared	S2
Only to use his own and staring wide	S2
And hungering for the gilt and jewell'd world	S2
About him look'd as he is like to prove	I
When Julian goes the lord of all he saw	M2
	-
'My guests ' said Julian 'you are honour'd now	E2
Ev'n to the uttermost in her behold	S2
Of all my treasures the most beautiful	O
Of all things upon earth the dearest to me '	-
Then waving us a sign to seat ourselves	M2
Led his dear lady to a chair of state	S2
And I by Lionel sitting saw his face	M2
Fire and dead ashes and all fire again	E2
Thrice in a second felt him tremble too	S2
And heard him muttering 'So like so like	L
She never had a sister I knew none	E2
Some cousin of his and hers O God so like '	-
And then he suddenly ask'd her if she were	M2
She shook and cast her eyes down and was dmnb	E4
And then some other question'd if she came	X2
From foreign lands and still she did not speak	L
Another if the boy were hers but she	M2
To all their queries answer'd not a word	S2
Which made the amazement more till one of them	X2
Said shuddering 'Her spectre ' But his friend	S2
Replied in half a whisper 'Not at least	S2
The spectre that will speak if spoken to	S2
Terrible pity if one so beautiful	O
Prove as I almost dread to find her dumb '	-
	-
But Julian sitting by her answer'd all	O
She is but dumb because in her you see	M2
That faithful servant whom we spoke about	S2
Obedient to her second master now	E2
Which will not last I have here to night a guest	S2
So bound to me by common love and loss	M2
What I shall I bind him more in his behalf	I
Shall I exceed the Persian giving him	X2
That which of all things is the dearest to me	M2
Not only showing and he himself pronounced	S2
That my rich gift is wholly mine to give	I
	-
'Now all be dumb and promise all of you	S2
Not to break in on what I say by word	S2
Or whisper while I show you all my heart '	-
And then began the story of his love	I
As here to day but not so wordily	O
The passionate moment would not suffer that	S2
Past thro' his visions to the burial thence	M2
Down to this last strange hour in his own hall	O
And then rose up and with him all his guests	M2
Once more as by enchantment all but he	M2
Lionel who fain had risen but fell again	E2
And sat as if in chains to whom he said	S2
	-
'Take my free gift my cousin for your wife	I
And were it only for the giver's sake	L
And tho' she seem so like the one you lost	S2
Yet cast her not away so suddenly	M2
Lest there be none left here to bring her back	L
I leave this land for ever ' Here he ceased	S2
	-
Then taking his dear lady by one hand	S2
And bearing on one arm the noble babe	E4
He slowly brought them both to Lionel	O
And there the widower husband and dead wife	I
Rush'd each at each with a cry that rather seem'd	S2
For some new death than for a life renew'd	S2
Whereat the very babe began to wail	O
At once they turn'd and caught and brought him in	E2
To their charm'd circle and half killing him	X2
With kisses round him closed and claspt again	E2
But Lionel when at last he freed himself	I
From wife and child and lifted up a face	M2
All over glowing with the sun of life	I
And love and boundless thanks the sight of this	M2
So frighted our good friend that turning to me	M2
And saying 'It is over let us go'	L
There were our horses ready at the doors	M2
We bad them no farewell but mounting these	M2
He past for ever from his native land	S2
And I with him my Julian back to mine	E2

Alfred Lord Tennyson

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