"And the prize falls on its finder's heart; "So, trial after trial past, "Wilt thou fall at the very last "Breathless, half in trance "With the thrill of the great deliverance, "Into our arms for evermore; "And thou shalt know, those arms once curled "It is our life at thy feet we throw "Art thou the tree that props the plant, "Or the climbing plant that seeks the tree- "They would do more than the world has done: Shall some one deck thee, over and down "Up and about, with blossoms and leaves? "Fix his heart's fruit for thy garland-crown, "Cling with his soul as the gourd-vine cleaves, Die on thy boughs and disappear "While not a leaf of thine is sere? "Or is the other fate in store, "And art thou fitted to adore, "To give thy wondrous self away, "And take a stronger nature's sway? "I foresee and could foretell "Thy future portion, sure and well: "But those passionate eyes speak true, speak true, "Let them say what thou shalt do! 'We pursue thy whole career, "And hope for it, or doubt, or fear,Lo, hast thou kept thy path or swerved, "We are beside thee in all thy ways, "With our blame, with our praise, "Our shame to feel, our pride to show, "Glad, angry-but indifferent, no! "Whether it be thy lot to go, "For the good of us all, where the haters meet "In the crowded city's horrible street; "Or thou step alone through the morass "Where never sound yet was Save the dry quick clap of the stork's bill, "For the air is still, and the water still, "When the blue breast of the dipping coot "Dives under, and all is mute. "So, at the last shall come old age, "Decrepit as befits that stage; "How else wouldst thou retire apart "With the hoarded memories of thy heart, "And gather all to the very least "Of the fragments of life's earlier feast, "Let fall through eagerness to find "The crowning dainties yet behind? "Laid together thus at last, "The first fresh with the faded hues, As round eve's shades their framework roll, Grandly fronts for once thy soul. "And then as, 'mid the dark, a gleam "Of yet another morning breaks, "And like the hand which ends a dream, "Death, with the might of his sunbeam, "Touches the flesh and the soul awakes, "Then Ay, then indeed something would happen! But what? For here her voice changed like a bird's; There grew more of the music and less of the words; Had Jacynth only been by me to clap pen All I've forgotten as well as what lingers Of the speech I spoil, as it were, with stammering -More fault of those who had the hammering Of prosody into me and syntax, And did it, not with hobnails but tintacks! But to return from this excursion, Just, do you mark, when the song was sweetest, The peace most deep and the charm completest, There came, shall I say, a snap And the charm vanished! And my sense returned, so strangely banished, And, starting as from a nap, I knew the crone was bewitching my lady, When the door opened, and more than mortal The Duchess: I stopped as if struck by palsy. And that I had nothing to do, for the rest, And the brow's height and the breast's expanding And I was hers to live or to die. Such little signs should serve wild creatures So that each knows what his friend requires, Followed silent and alone; I spoke to her, but she merely jabbered Crossed the court with nobody heeding; I remember patting while it carried her, And knew the poor devil so much beneath her For though the moment I began setting She stopped me, while his rug was shifting, And, with a gesture kind but conclusive, Yet when she was mounted, the Gipsy behind her, I suppose with a voice of less steadiness So understood,-that a true heart so may gain again, Kissed Jacynth, and soberly drowned myself! Such as friends in a convent make To wear, each for the other's sake,— This, see, which at my breast I wear, Ever did (rather to Jacynth's grudgment), And ever shall, till the Day of Judgment. And then, and then,-to cut short, this is idle, These are feelings it is not good to foster,— I pushed the gate wide, she shook the bridle, And the palfry bounded,—and so we lost her. When the liquor's out why clink the cannikin? I did think to describe you the panic in |