At life's best, with our eyes upturned Whither life's flower is first discerned, We, fixed so, ever should so abide? What if we still ride on, we two, With life for ever old yet new, Changed not in kind but in degree, The instant made eternity, And heaven just prove that I and she Ride, ride together, for ever ride? MESMERISM. I. ALL I believed is true! I am able yet All I want, to get By a method as strange as new: II. If at night, when doors are shut, And the death-watch ticks, And the bar has a flag of smut, III. And the socket floats and flares, Is surmised on the garret-stairs, IV. And the spider, to serve his ends, By a sudden thread, Arms and legs outspread, On the table's midst descends, Comes to find, God knows what friends !- V. If since eve drew in, I say, (So to speak) my thought To bear on the woman away, Till I felt my hair turn grey VI. Till I seemed to have and hold, "Twixt the wall and me From the hair-plait's chestnut-gold To the foot in its muslin fold VII. Have and hold, then and there, Passive and yet aware, In the grasp of my steady stare VIII. Hold and have, there and then, ((All that women add to men, IX. Having and holding, till I imprint her fast On the void at last As the sun does whom he will X. Then,—if my heart's strength serve, And through all and each Of the veils I reach To her soul and never swerve, Knitting an iron nerve XV. And must follow as I require, Bringing flesh and all, Essence and earth-attire, To the source of the tractile fire: XVI. Till the house called hers, not mine, With a growing weight 1 Seems to suffocate If she break not its leaden line And escape from its close confine. XVII. Out of doors into the night! On to the maze Of the wild wood-ways, Not turning to left nor right From the pathway, blind with sight XVIII. Making thro' rain and wind O'er the broken shrubs, 'Twixt the stems and stubs, With a still, composed, strong mind, Not a care for the world behind XIX. Swifter and still more swift, As the crowding peace Doth to joy increase In the wide blind eyes uplift Thro' the darkness and the drift! |