“AH, if to know the sign she fail,” | |
| He said, “Woe, Woe!” and he grew pale. | |
| The sign was made; but not a trace | |
| Of knowing was upon her face. | |
| |
| As if death’s mouth, the grave, had spoke, | 5 |
| His blood its law of flowing broke, | |
| And he felt twist in every vein, | |
| Snake-like, a nerve of swollen pain. | |
| |
| There wrestled he, standing apart | |
| To force it back unto the heart, | 10 |
| If haply to a running flood | |
| It might dissolve, of living blood. | |
| |
| O life in death and death in life! | |
| O torturing, damn’d, yet conquering strife | |
| For yet, years afterwards, made whole, | 15 |
| He held the sceptre of his soul. | |
| |
| And lo! with faces all elate | |
| With such a joy, so deep, so great, | |
| That its most dear, most sweet, and chief | |
| Resemblance was to glorious grief, | 20 |
| |
| They stood in voiceless transport round, | |
| Naught owing to articulate sound; | |
| But a soft music forth doth press | |
| And swells, and falls, from all their dress; | |
| |
| For, as their nature stands above | 25 |
| The power of tongue to tell their love, | |
| God makes from forth their garments’ hem | |
| Music go out and speak for them. | |
| |
| These looked, and loved him with their eyes | |
| Filled with pass-words from Paradise; | 30 |
| “And evermore,” he sang, “the sign | |
| Given, swift-answered, proves them mine!” | |
| |
| “Ah, Lord,” he said, “I did but seek | |
| To bless with love a maiden meek; | |
| A maiden given a royal, free, | 35 |
| Most god-like gift,—but not to me. | |
| |
| “I and my staff, wherein amassed | |
| Was all my wealth, this Jordan passed; | |
| ’Tis Thou who mak’st me here to stand | |
| Augmented to a twofold band.” | 40 |
| |
