Слике страница
PDF
ePub

Stole his friend's wife, stagnated slow,

Or maundered, unable to do as much,

And muttered of peace where he had no part :
While, hid in the closet, laid on the shelf, —

8.

On the whole, you were let alone, I think!
So, you looked to the other, who acquiesced;
My rival, the proud man, - prize your pink
Of poets! A poet he was! I've guessed:
He rhymed you his rubbish nobody read,

Loved and doved you

you

-

- did not I laugh!

There was a prize! But we both were tried.

Oh, heart of mine, marked broad with her mark,

Tekel, found wanting, set aside,

Scorned! See, I bleed these tears in the dark

Till comfort come and the last be bled:

He? He is tagging your epitaph.

9.

If it would only come over again!

Time to be patient with me, and probe

This heart till you punctured the proper vein,

Just to learn what blood is: twitch the robe

From that blank lay-figure your fancy draped, Prick the leathern heart till the verses spirt!

And late it was easy; late, you walked

Where a friend might meet you; Edith's name Arose to one's lip if one laughed or talked;

If I heard good news, you heard the same; When I woke, I knew that your breath escaped; I could bide my time, keep alive, alert.

10.

And alive I shall keep and long, you will see!
I knew a man, was kicked like a dog
From gutter to cesspool; what cared he

So long as he picked from the filth his prog?
He saw youth, beauty, and genius die,

And jollily lived to his hundredth year. But I will live otherwise: none of such life! At once I begin as I mean to end.

Go on with the world, get gold in its strife,

Give your spouse the slip, and betray your friend!

There are two who decline, a woman and I,

And enjoy our death in the darkness here.

11.

I liked that way you had with your curls

Wound to a ball in a net behind:

Your cheek was chaste as a quaker-girl's,

And your mouth—there was never, to my mind,

Such a funny mouth, for it would not shut;

And the dented chin, too- what a chin !

There were certain ways when you spoke, some words That you know you never could pronounce :

You were thin, however; like a bird's

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

The world was right when it called you thin.

12.

But I turn my back on the world: I take
Your hand, and kneel, and lay to my lips.
Bid me live, Edith! Let me slake

Thirst at your presence! Fear no slips!
'Tis your slave shall pay, while his soul endures,
Full due, love's whole debt, summum jus.
My queen shall have high observance, planned
Courtship made perfect, no least line

Crossed without warrant. There you stand,
Warm too, and white too: would this wine
Had washed all over that body of yours,

Ere I drank it, and you down with it, thus!

ABT VOGLER.

(AFTER HE HAS BEEN EXTEMPORIZING UPON THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF HIS INVENTION.)

« ПретходнаНастави »