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(For a Picture by E. Burne Jones) I.| | Habes tota quod mente petisti |
| Infelix. |
IN deep vague spaces of the lonely sea
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| She deemed her soulless life was almost fair, | |
| Yet ever dreamed that in the upper air | |
| Lay happiness—supreme in mystery; | |
| Then saw him—out of reach as you I see— | 5 |
| Worshipped his strength, the brown breast broad and bare, | |
| The arms that bent the oar, and grew aware | |
| Of what life means, and why it is good to be; | |
| And yearned for him with all her body sweet, | |
| Her lithe cold arms, and chill wet bosom’s beat, | 10 |
| Vowed him her beauty’s unillumined shrine: | |
| So I—seeing you above me—turn and tire, | |
| Sick with an empty ache of long desire | |
| To drag you down, to hold you, make you mine! | |
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II. Attained at last—the lifelong longing’s prize! | 15 |
| Raped from the world of air where warm loves glow | |
| She bears him through her water-world below; | |
| Yet in those strange, glad, fair, mysterious eyes | |
| The shadow of the after-sorrow lies, | |
| And of the coming hour, when she shall know | 20 |
| What she has lost in having gained him so, | |
| And whether death life’s longing satisfies. | |
| She shall find out the meaning of despair, | |
| And know the anguish of a granted prayer, | |
| And how, all ended, all is yet undone. | 25 |
| So I—I long for what, far off, you shine, | |
| Not what you must be ere you could be mine, | |
| That which would crown despair if it were won. | |
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