To M. B.
PERSONS: THE KING,
QUEEN AVERLAINE,
THE KNIGHT ARKELD.
I.
KING AND QUEEN.
1.
The day has come; at last my dream unfolds
White, wondering petals with the rising sun.
No other glade in Love's world-garden holds
So fair a bloom from vanquished winter won.
Long, oh, so long I watched through budding hours,
And, trembling, feared my dream would never wake;
As, one by one, I saw star-tranced flowers
Out on the night their dewy splendour shake.
But with the earliest gleam of dawn it stirred,
Knowing that Love had put the dark to flight;
And I must sing more glad than any bird
Because the sun has filled my dream with light.
2.
Is it high noon, already, in the land?
O Love, I dreamed that morn could never pass;
That we might ever wander, hand in hand,
As children in June-meadows plucking flowers,
Through ever-waking, fresh-unfolding hours:
Yet now we sink love-wearied in the grass;
Yea, it is noon, high noon in all the land.
The young wind slumbers; all the little birds
That sang about us in the fields of morn
Are songless now; no happy flight of words
On Love's lip hovers--Love has waxed to noon.
Ah, God, if Love should wane to evening soon
To perish in a sunless world, forlorn,
And cease with the last song of weary birds!
3.
At dawn I gathered flowers of white,
To garland them for your delight.
At noon I gathered flowers of blue,
To weave them into joy for you.
At eve I gather purple flowers,
To strew above the withered hours.
4.
She knelt at eve beside the stream,
And, sighing, sang: "O waters clear,
Forsaken now of joy and fear,
I come to drown a withered dream.
"Unseen of day, I let it fall
Within the shadow of my hair.
O little dream, that bloomed so fair,
The waters hide you after all!"
5.
"Is it not dawn?" she cried, and raised her head,
"Or hath the sun, grey-shrouded, yesternight,
Gone down with Love for ever to the dead?
When Love has perished, can there yet be light?"
"Yea, it is dawn," one answered: "see the dew
Quivers agleam, and all the east is white;
While in the willow song begins anew."
"When Love has perished, can there yet be light?"
II.
AVERLAINE AND ARKELD.
1.
ARKELD: Oh, why did you lift your eyes to mine?
Oh, why did you lift your drooping head?
AVERLAINE: The tangled threads of the fates entwine
Our hearts that follow as children led.
ARKELD: From the utmost ends of the earth we came,
As star moves starward through wildering night.
AVERLAINE: Our souls have mingled as flame with flame,
Yea, they have mingled as light with light.
ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!
AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!
ARKELD: The stars in their courses move through the sky
Unswerving, unheeding, cold and blind.
AVERLAINE: Why did you linger nor pass me by
Where the cross-roads meet in the ways that wind?
ARKELD: I saw your eyes from the dusk of your hair
Flame out with sorrow and yearning love.
AVERLAINE: And I, who wandered with grey despair,
Looking up, saw heaven in blossom above.
ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!
AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!
ARKELD: May we not go as we came, alone,
Unto the ends of the earth anew?
AVERLAINE: May we draw afresh from the rose new-blown
The golden sunlight, the crystal dew?
ARKELD: Yea, love between us has bloomed as a rose
Out of the desert under our feet.
AVERLAINE: May we forget how the red heart glows,
Forget that the dew on the petals is sweet?
ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!
AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!
ARKELD: Have the ages brought us together that we
Might tremble, start at shadows, and cry?
AVERLAINE: Yea, it has been, and ever will be
Till Sorrow be slain or Love's self die.
ARKELD: Stronger than Sorrow is Love; and Hate,
The brother of Love, shall end our Sorrow.
AVERLAINE: The Shadow is strong with the strength of Fate,
And, slain, would rise from the grave to-morrow.
ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!
AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow for ever between!
2.
AVERLAINE: Yea, we must part, and tear with ruthless hands
The golden web wherein, too late, Love strove
To weave us joy and bind us heart to heart.
ARKELD: Yea, we must part, and strew on desert-sands
Petal by petal all the rose of Love,
And part for ever where the cross-ways part.
AVERLAINE: Yea, we must part, and never turn our eyes
From strange horizons, desolate and far,
Though Love cry ever: "Turn but once, sad heart!"
ARKELD: Yea, we must part, and under alien skies
Must follow after some cold, gleaming star,
And roam, as north and south winds roam, apart.
AVERLAINE: Yea, we must part, ere Love be grown too strong
And we too helpless to resist his might;
While each may go with pure, unshamed heart.
ARKELD: Yea, we must part; and though we do Love wrong,
He will the more subdue us in our flight,
And hold us each more surely his, apart.