Love's Ordeal

"Hear'st thou that sound upon the window pane?"Said the youth softly, as outstretched he layWhere for an hour outstretched he had lain--Softly, yet with some token of dismay.Answered the maiden: "It is but the rainThat has been gathering in the west all day!Why shouldst thou hearken so? Thine eyelids close,And let me gather peace from thy repose."

"Hear'st thou that moan creeping along the ground?"Said the youth, and his veiling eyelids roseFrom deeps of lightning-haunted dark profoundRuffled with herald blasts of coming woes."I hear it," said the maiden; "'tis the soundOf a great wind that here not seldom blows;It swings the huge arms of the dreary pine,But thou art safe, my darling, clasped in mine."

"Hear'st thou the baying of my hounds?" said he;"Draw back the lattice bar and let them in."From a rent cloud the moonlight, ghostily,Slid clearer to the floor, as, gauntly thin,She opening, they leaped through with bound so free,Then shook the rain-drops from their shaggy skin.The maiden closed the shower-bespattered glass,Whose spotted shadow through the room did pass.

The youth, half-raised, was leaning on his hand,But, when again beside him sat the maid,His eyes for one slow minute having scannedHer moonlit face, he laid him down, and said,Monotonous, like solemn-read command:"For Love is of the earth, earthy, and is laidLifeless at length back in the mother-tomb."Strange moanings from the pine entered the room.

And then two shadows like the shadow of glass,Over the moonbeams on the cottage floor,As wind almost as thin and shapeless, pass;A sound of rain-drops came about the door,And a soft sighing as of plumy grass;A look of sorrowing doubt the youth's face wore;The two great hounds half rose; with aspect grimThey eyed his countenance by the taper dim.

Shadow nor moaning sound the maiden noted,But on his face dwelt her reproachful look;She doubted whether he the saying had quotedOut of some evil, earth-begotten book,Or up from his deep heart, like bubbles, had floatedWords which no maiden ever yet could brook;But his eyes held the question, "Yea or No?"Therefore the maiden answered, "Nay, not so;

"Love is of heaven, eternal." Half a smileJust twinned his lips: shy, like all human best,A hopeful thought bloomed out, and lived a while;He looked one moment like a dead man blest--His soul a bark that in a sunny isleAt length had found the haven of its rest;But he could not remain, must forward fare:He spoke, and said with words abrupt and bare,

"Maiden, I have loved other maidens." PaleHer red lips grew. "I loved them, yes, but theySuccessively in trial's hour did fail,For after sunset clouds again are gray."A sudden light shone through the fringy veilThat drooping hid her eyes; and then there layA stillness on her face, waiting; and thenThe little clock rung out the hour of ten.

Moaning once more the great pine-branches bowTo a soft plaining wind they would not stem.Brooding upon her face, the youth said, "ThouArt not more beautiful than some of them,But a fair courage crowns thy peaceful brow,Nor glow thine eyes, but shine serene like gemThat lamps from radiant store upon the darkThe light it gathered where its song the lark.

"The horse that broke this day from grasp of three,Thou sawest then the hand thou holdest, hold:Ere two fleet hours are gone, that hand will beDry, big-veined, wrinkled, withered up and old!--No woman yet hath shared my doom with me."With calm fixed eyes she heard till he had told;The stag-hounds rose, a moment gazed at him,Then laid them down with aspect yet more grim.

Spake on the youth, nor altered look or tone:"'Tis thy turn, maiden, to say no or dare."--Was it the maiden's, that importunate moan?--"At midnight, when the moon sets, wilt thou shareThe terror with me? or must I go aloneTo meet an agony that will not spare?"She answered not, but rose to take her cloak;He staid her with his hand, and further spoke.

"Not yet," he said; "yet there is respite; see,Time's finger points not yet to the dead hour!Enough is left even now for telling theeThe far beginnings whence the fearful powerOf the great dark came shadowing down on me:Red roses crowding clothe my love's dear bower--Nightshade and hemlock, darnel, toadstools whiteCompass the place where I must lie to-night!"

Around his neck the maiden put her armAnd knelt beside him leaning on his breast,As o'er his love, to keep it strong and warm,Brooding like bird outspread upon her nest.And well the faith of her dear eyes might charmAll doubt away from love's primeval rest!He hid his face upon her heart, and thereSpake on with voice like wind from lonely lair.

A drearier moaning through the pine did goAs if a human voice complained and criedFor one long minute; then the sound grew low,Sank to a sigh, and sighing sank and died.Together at the silence two voices mow--His, and the clock's, which, loud grown, did divideThe hours into live moments--sparks of timeScorching the soul that trembles for the chime.

He spoke of sins ancestral, born in himImpulses; of resistance fierce and wild;Of failure weak, and strength reviving dim;Self-hatred, dreariness no love beguiled;Of storm, and blasting light, and darkness grim;Of torrent paths, and tombs with mountains piled;Of gulfs in the unsunned bosom of the earth;Of dying ever into dawning birth.

"But when I find a heart whose blood is wine;Whose faith lights up the cold brain's passionless hour;Whose love, like unborn rose-bud, will not pine,But waits the sun and the baptizing shower--Till then lies hid, and gathers odours fineTo greet the human summer, when its flowerShall blossom in the heart and soul and brain,And love and passion be one holy twain--

"Then shall I rest, rest like the seven of yore;Slumber divine will steep my outworn soulAnd every stain dissolve to the very core.She too will slumber, having found her goal.Time's ocean o'er us will, in silence frore,Aeonian tides of change-filled seasons roll,And our long, dark, appointed period fill.Then shall we wake together, loving still."

Her face on his, her mouth to his mouth pressed,Was all the answer of the trusting maid.Close in his arms he held her to his breastFor one brief moment--would have yet assayedSome deeper word her heart to strengthen, lestIt should though faithful be too much afraid;But the clock gave the warning to the hour--And on the thatch fell sounds not of a shower.

One long kiss, and the maiden rose. A fearLay, thin as a glassy shadow, on her heart;She trembled as some unknown thing were near,But smiled next moment--for they should not part!The youth arose. With solemn-joyous cheer,He helped the maid, whose trembling hands did thwartHer haste to wrap her in her mantle's fold;Then out they passed into the midnight cold.

The moon was sinking in the dim green west,Curled upward, half-way to the horizon's brink,A leaf of glory falling to its rest,The maiden's hand, still trembling, sought to linkHer arm to his, with love's instinctive quest,But his enfolded her; hers did not sink,But, thus set free, it stole his body round,And so they walked, in freedom's fetters bound.

Pressed to his side, she felt, like full-toned bell,A mighty heart heave large in measured play;But as the floating moon aye lower fellIts bounding force did, by slow loss, decay.It throbbed now like a bird; now like far knellPulsed low and faint! And now, with sick dismay,She felt the arm relax that round her clung,And from her circling arm he forward hung.

His footsteps feeble, short his paces grow;Her strength and courage mount and swell amain.He lifted up his head: the moon lay low,Nigh the world's edge. His lips with some keen painQuivered, but with a smile his eyes turned slowSeeking in hers the balsam for his baneAnd finding it--love over death supreme:Like two sad souls they walked met in one dream.

In a lovely garden walkingTwo lovers went hand in hand;Two wan, worn figures, talkingThey sat in the flowery land.

On the cheek they kissed one another,On the mouth with sweet refrain;Fast held they each the other,And were young and well again.

Two little bells rang shrilly--The dream went with the hour:She lay in the cloister stilly,He far in the dungeon-tower!