If she knew how she came to drop so soundly The whole time, sleeping as profoundly To breathe the fresh air from the balcony, Yet as if a watch she tried to keep, With her head against the door; On the lady's head and face intent : For, coiled at her feet like a child at ease, The lady sat between her knees, And o'er them the lady's clasped hands met, And on those hands her chin was set, And her upturned face met the face of the crone Wherein the eyes had grown and grown As if she could double and quadruple Over each shoulder, loose and abundant, As her head thrown back showed the white throat curving; And the very tresses shared in the pleasure, Moving to the mystic measure, Bounding as the bosom bounded. I stopped short, more and more confounded, When all at once a hand detained me, From under the words it first had propped, And left them midway in the world, I could hear at last, and understand, And when I held the unbroken thread, "And so at last we find my tribe. "I trace them the vein and the other vein 66 Making our rapid mystic mark; "And I bid my people prove and probe "Each eye's profound and glorious globe "In those depths so dear and dark, "Like the spots that snap and burst and flee, Circling over the midnight sea. "And on that round young cheek of thine "I make them recognise the tinge, "As when of the costly scarlet wine "They drip so much as will impinge "Still thro' the mixture shall be seen. "For so I prove thee, to one and all, "Fit, when my people ope their breast, "Which adds one more child to the rest "When the breast is bare and the arms are wide, "And the world is left outside. "For there is probation to decree, "And many and long must the trials be "Thou shalt victoriously endure, "If that brow is true and those eyes are sure; "Like a jewel-finder's fierce assay "Of the prize he dug from its mountain tomb, "Let once the vindicating ray 66 Leap out amid the anxious gloom, "And steel and fire have done their part, "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 "About thee, what we knew before, 66 I How love is the only good in the world. "Henceforth be loved as heart can love, "Or brain devise, or hand approve! "Stand up, look below, "It is our life at thy feet we throw "To step with into light and joy ; "Not a power of life but we employ "To satisfy thy nature's want; "Art thou the tree that props the plant, "Or the climbing plant that seeks the tree- 66 66 They would do more than the world has done; Though each apart were never so weak, "Ye vainly through the world should seek "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, "While not a leaf of thine is sere? "Thy future portion, sure and well: "But those passionate eyes speak true, speak true, "Let them say what thou shalt do! 66 Only be sure thy daily life, "In its peace or in its strife, "Never shall be unobserved; "We pursue thy whole career, "And hope for it, or doubt, or fear, "Lo, hast thou kept thy path or swerved, |