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“Un amour taciturne et toujours menacé.”—De Vigny
I FOAMLESS the gradual waters well | |
| From the sheer deep where darkness lies, | |
| Till to the shoulder rock they swell | |
| With a slow cumulance of sighs. | |
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| O waters, gather up your strength | 5 |
| From the blind caves of your unrest; | |
| Loose your load utterly at length | |
| Over the moonlight-marbled breast. | |
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| There sleep, diffused, the long dim hours— | |
| Nor let your love-locks be withdrawn | 10 |
| Till round the world-horizon flowers | |
| The harsh inevitable dawn. | |
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II We watched together | |
| The sun-shaft pierce | |
| The smoking weather; | 15 |
| The hail-blasts fierce | |
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| One moment illume | |
| That waste so cold— | |
| Irised sheets of spume, | |
| Wild welter of gold! | 20 |
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| The gaunt gulls flying | |
| Were backward tossed, | |
| Their cruel crying | |
| In uproar lost. | |
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| She flung aside | 25 |
| Her fettering cloak, | |
| Made of her wide | |
| Strong arms a yoke; | |
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| Calling, “Haste, lover, | |
| Outstrip the hours— | 30 |
| It soon will be over, | |
| This love of ours!” | |
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| Drove on my face | |
| Kisses like cries, | |
| Gazed as to trace | 35 |
| Light in blind eyes; | |
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| Broke with strange laughter | |
| Headlong away, | |
| Before nor after | |
| Ever so gay! | 40 |
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III All is estranged today, | |
| Chastened and meek. | |
| Side by side taking our way, | |
| With what anguish we seek | |
| To dare each to face the other or even to speak! | 45 |
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| The sun, like an opal, drifts | |
| Through a vaporous shine; | |
| Or overwhelms itself in dark rifts | |
| On the sea’s far line. | |
| Sheer light falls in a single sword like a sign. | 50 |
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| The sea, striving in its bed | |
| Like a corpse that awakes, | |
| Slowly heaves up its lustreless head. | |
| Crowned with weeds and snakes, | |
| To strike at the shore, baring fangs as it breaks. | 55 |
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| Something threatening earth | |
| Aims at our love. | |
| Gone is our ignorant mirth, | |
| Love like speech of the dove. | |
| The Sword and the Snake have seen and proclaim now, “Enough!” | 60 |
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IV The moon behind high tranquil leaves | |
| Hides her sad head; | |
| The dwindled water tinkles and grieves | |
| In the stream’s black bed. | |
| And where now, where are you sleeping? | 65 |
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| The shadowy night-jar, hawking gnats, | |
| Flickers or floats; | |
| High in still air the flurrying bats | |
| Repeat their wee notes. | |
| And where now, where are you sleeping? | 70 |
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| Silent lightning flutters in heaven, | |
| Where quiet crowd, | |
| By the toil of an upper whirlwind driven, | |
| Dark legions of cloud. | |
| In whose arms now are you sleeping? | 75 |
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| The cloud makes, lidding the sky’s wan hole, | |
| The world a tomb; | |
| Far out at sea long thunders roll | |
| From gloom to dim gloom: | |
| In whose arms now are you sleeping? | 80 |
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| Rent clouds, like boughs in darkness, hang | |
| Close overhead; | |
| The foreland’s bell-buoy begins to clang | |
| As if for the dead: | |
| Awake they where you are sleeping? | 85 |
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| The chasms crack; the heavens revolt; | |
| With tearing sound | |
| Bright bolt volleys on flaring bolt; | |
| Wave and cloud clash; through deep, through vault, | |
| Huge thunders rebound! | 90 |
| But they wake not where you are sleeping. | |
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