The Stream's Secret
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1881 |
|
1 What thing unto mine ear 2 Wouldst thou convey,--what secret thing, 3 O wandering water ever whispering? 4 Surely thy speech shall be of her. 5 Thou water, O thou whispering wanderer, 6 What message dost thou bring? 7 Say, hath not Love leaned low 8 This hour beside thy far well-head, 9 And there through jealous hollowed fingers said 10 The thing that most I long to know-- 11 Murmuring with curls all dabbled in thy flow 12 And washed lips rosy red? 13 He told it to thee there 14 Where thy voice hath a louder tone; 15 But where it welters to this little moan 16 His will decrees that I should hear. 17 Now speak: for with the silence is no fear, 18 And I am all alone. 19 Shall Time not still endow 20 One hour with life, and I and she 21 Slake in one kiss the thirst of memory? 22 Say, streams, lest Love should disavow 23 Thy service, and the bird upon the bough 24 Sing first to tell it me. 25 What whisperest thou? Nay, why 26 Name the dead hours? I mind them well. 27 Their ghosts in many darkened doorways dwell 28 With desolate eyes to know them by. 29 That hour must still be born ere it can die 30 Of that I'd have thee tell. 31 But hear, before thou speak! 32 Withhold, I pray, the vain behest 33 That while the maze hath still its bower for quest 34 My burning heart should cease to seek. 35 Be sure that Love ordained for souls more meek 36 His roadside dells of rest. 37 Stream, when this silver thread 38 In flood-time is a torrent brown, 39 May any bulwark bind thy foaming crown? 40 Shall not the waters surge and spread 41 And to the crannied boulders of their bed 42 Still shoot the dead drift down7 43 Let no rebuke find place 44 In speech of thine: or it shall prove 45 That thou dost ill expound the words of Love. 46 Even as thine eddy's rippling race 47 Would blur the perfect image of his face 48 I will have none thereof. 49 O learn and understand 50 That 'gainst the wrongs himself did wreak 51 Love sought her aid; until her shadowy cheek 52 And eyes beseeching gave command; 53 And compassed in her close compassionate hand 54 My heart must burn and speak. 55 For then at last we spoke 56 What eyes so oft had told to eyes 57 Through that long-lingering silence whose half-sighs 58 Alone the buried secret broke, 59 Which with snatched hands and lips' reverberate stroke 60 Then from the heart did rise. 61 But she is far away 62 Now; nor the hours of night grown hoar 63 Bring yet to me, long gazing from the door, 64 The wind-stirred robe of roseate gray 65 And rose-crown of the hour that leads the day 66 When we shall meet once more. 67 Dark as thy blinded wave 68 When brimming midnight floods the glen,-- 69 Bright as the laughter of thy runnels when 70 The dawn yields all the light they crave; 71 Even so these hours to wound and that to save 72 Are sisters in Love's ken. 73 Oh sweet her bending grace 74 Then when I kneel beside her feet; 75 And sweet her eyes' o'erhanging heaven; and sweet 76 The gathering folds of her embrace; 77 And her fall'n hair at last shed round my face 78 When breaths and tears shall meet. 79 Beneath her sheltering hair, 80 In the warm silence near her breast, 81 Our kisses and our sobs shall sink to rest; 82 As in some still trance made aware 83 That day and night have wrought to fulness there 84 And Love has built our nest. 85 And as in the dim grove, 86 When the rains cease that hushed them long, 87 'Mid glistening boughs the song-birds wake to song,-- 88 So from our hearts deep-shrined in love, 89 While the leaves throb beneath, around, above, 90 The quivering notes shall throng. 91 Till tenderest words found vain 92 Draw back to wonder mute and deep, 93 And closed lips in closed arms a silence keep, 94 Subdued by memory's circling strain,-- 95 The wind-rapt sound that the wind brings again 96 While all the willows weep. 97 Then by her summoning art 98 Shall memory conjure back the sere 99 Autumnal Springs, from many a dying year 100 Born dead; and, bitter to the heart, 101 The very ways where now we walk apart 102 Who then shall cling so near. 103 And with each thought new-grown, 104 Some sweet caress or some sweet name 105 Low-breathed shall let me know her thought the same: 106 Making me rich with every tone 107 And touch of the dear heaven so long unknown 108 That filled my dreams with flame. 109 Pity and love shall burn 110 In her pressed cheek and cherishing hands; 111 And from the living spirit of love that stands 112 Between her lips to soothe and yearn, 113 Each separate breath shall clasp me round in turn 114 And loose my spirit's bands. 115 Oh passing sweet and dear, 116 Then when the worshipped form and face 117 Are felt at length in darkling close embrace; 118 Round which so oft the sun shone clear, 119 With mocking light and pitiless atmosphere, 120 In many an hour and place. 121 Ah me! with what proud growth 122 Shall that hour's thirsting race be run; 123 While, for each several sweetness still begun 124 Afresh, endures love's endless drouth; 125 Sweet hands, sweet hair, sweet cheeks, sweet eyes, sweet mouth, 126 Each singly wooed and won. 127 Yet most with the sweet soul 128 Shall love's espousals then be knit; 129 What time the governing cloud sheds peace from it 130 O'er tremulous wings that touch the goal, 131 And on the unmeasured height of Love's control 132 The lustral fires are lit. 133 Therefore, when breast and cheek 134 Now part, from long embraces free,-- 135 Each on the other gazing shall but see 136 A self that has no need to speak: 137 All things unsought, yet nothing more to seek,-- 138 One love in unity. 139 O water wandering past,-- 140 Albeit to thee I speak this thing, 141 O water, thou that wanderest whispering, 142 Thou keep'st thy counsel to the last. 143 What spell upon thy bosom should Love cast, 144 Its secret thence to wring? 145 Nay, must thou hear the tale 146 Of the past days,--the heavy debt 147 Of life that obdurate time withholds,--ere yet 148 To win thine ear these prayers prevail, 149 And by thy voice Love's self with high All-hail 150 Yield up the amulet? 151 How should all this be told?-- 152 All the sad sum of wayworn days,-- 153 Heart's anguish in the impenetrable maze; 154 And on the waste uncoloured wold 155 The visible burthen of the sun grown cold 156 And the moon's labouring gaze? 157 Alas! shall hope be nurs'd 158 On life's all-succouring breast in vain, 159 And made so perfect only to be slain? 160 Or shall not rather the sweet thirst 161 Even yet rejoice the heart with warmth dispers'd 162 And strength grown fair again? 163 Stands it not by the door!-- 164 Love's Hour--Till she and I shall meet 165 With bodiless form and unapparent feet 166 That cast no shadow yet before, 167 Though round its head the dawn begins to pour 168 The breath that makes day sweet? 169 Its eyes invisible 170 Watch till the dial's thin-thrown shade 171 Be born,--yea, till the journeying line be laid 172 Upon the point that wakes the spell, 173 And there in lovelier light than tongue can tell 174 Its presence stands array'd. 175 Its soul remembers yet 176 Those sunless hours that passed it by; 177 And still it hears the night's disconsolate cry, 178 And feels the branches wringing wet 179 Cast on its brow, that may not once forget, 180 Dumb tears from the blind sky. 181 But oh! when now her foot 182 Draws near, for whose sake night and day 183 Were long in weary longing sighed away,-- 184 The hour of Love, 'mid airs grown mute, 185 Shall sing beside the door, and Love's own lute 186 Thrill to the passionate lay. 187 Thou know'st, for Love has told 188 Within thine ear, O stream, how soon 189 That song shall lift its sweet appointed tune. 190 O tell me, for my lips are cold, 191 And in my veins the blood is waxing old 192 Even while I beg the boon. 193 So, in that hour of sighs 194 Assuaged, shall we beside this stone 195 Yield thanks for grace; while in thy mirror shown 196 The twofold image softly lies, 197 Until we kiss, and each in other's eyes 198 Is imaged all alone. 199 Still silent? Can no art 200 Of Love's then move thy pity? Nay, 201 To thee let nothing come that owns his sway: 202 Let happy lovers have no part 203 With thee; nor even so sad and poor a heart 204 As thou hast spurned to-day. 205 To-day? Lo! night is here. 206 The glen grows heavy with some veil 207 Risen from the earth or fall'n to make earth pale; 208 And all stands hushed to eye and ear, 209 Until the night-wind shake the shade like fear 210 And every covert quail. 211 Ah! by another wave 212 On other airs the hour must come 213 Which to thy heart, my love, shall call me home. 214 Between the lips of the low cave 215 Against that night the lapping waters lave, 216 And the dark lips are dumb. 217 But there Love's self doth stand, 218 And with Life's weary wings far flown, 219 And with Death's eyes that make the water moan, 220 Gathers the water in his hand: 221 And they that drink know nought of sky or land 222 But only love alone. 223 O soul-sequestered face 224 Far off,--O were that night but now! 225 So even beside that stream even I and thou 226 Through thirsting lips should draw Love's grace, 227 And in the zone of that supreme embrace 228 Bind aching breast and brow. 229 O water whispering 230 Still through the dark into mine ears,-- 231 As with mine eyes, is it not now with hers?-- 232 Mine eyes that add to thy cold spring, 233 Wan water, wandering water weltering, 234 This hidden tide of tears. |
|
Design 2000 by Chris McCormick. E-mail questions or comments to livelikemad@yahoo.com. |