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(From Poems and Ballads, 1866)
WHATEVER a man of the sons of men | |
| Shall say to his heart of the lords above, | |
| They have shown man verily, once and again, | |
| Marvellous mercies and infinite love. | |
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| In the wild fifth year of the change of things, | 5 |
| When France was glorious and blood-red, fair | |
| With dust of battle and deaths of kings, | |
| A queen of men, with helmeted hair; | |
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| Carrier came down to the Loire and slew, | |
| Till all the ways and the waves waxed red: | 10 |
| Bound and drowned, slaying two by two, | |
| Maidens and young men, naked and wed. | |
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| They brought on a day to his judgment-place | |
| One rough with labour and red with fight, | |
| And a lady noble by name and face, | 15 |
| Faultless, a maiden, wonderful, white. | |
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| She knew not, being for shame’s sake blind, | |
| If his eyes were hot on her face hard by. | |
| And the judge bade strip and ship them, and bind | |
| Bosom to bosom, to drown and die. | 20 |
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| The white girl winced and whitened; but he | |
| Caught fire, waxed bright as a great bright flame | |
| Seen with a thunder far out on the sea, | |
| Laughed hard as the glad blood went and came. | |
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| Twice his lips quailed with delight, then said, | 25 |
| “I have but a word to you all, one word | |
| Bear with me; surely I am but dead;” | |
| And all they laughed and mocked him and heard. | |
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| “Judge, when they open the judgment-roll, | |
| I will stand upright before God and pray: | 30 |
| ‘Lord God, have mercy on one man’s soul, | |
| For his mercy was great upon earth, I say. | |
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| “‘Lord, if I loved thee—Lord, if I served— | |
| If these who darkened thy fair Son’s face | |
| I fought with, sparing not one, nor swerved | 35 |
| A hand’s-breadth, Lord, in the perilous place— | |
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| “‘I pray thee say to this man, O Lord, | |
| Sit thou for him at my feet on a throne. | |
| I will face thy wrath, though it bite as a sword, | |
| And my soul shall burn for his soul, and atone. | 40 |
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| “‘For Lord, thou knowest, O God most wise, | |
| How gracious on earth were his deeds toward me. | |
| Shall this be a small thing in thine eyes, | |
| That is greater in mine than the whole great sea?’ | |
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| “I have loved this woman my whole life long, | 45 |
| And even for love’s sake when have I said | |
| ‘I love you?’ when have I done you wrong, | |
| Living? but now I shall have you dead. | |
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| “Yea, now, do I bid you love me, love? | |
| Love me or loathe, we are one not twain. | 50 |
| But God be praised in his heaven above | |
| For this my pleasure and that my pain! | |
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| “For never a man, being mean like me, | |
| Shall die like me till the whole world dies. | |
| I shall drown with her, laughing for love; and she | 55 |
| Mix with me, touching me, lips and eyes. | |
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| “Shall she not know me and see me all through, | |
| Me, on whose heart as a worm she trod? | |
| You have given me, God requite it you, | |
| What man yet never was given of God.” | 60 |
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| O sweet one love, O my life’s delight, | |
| Dear, though the days have divided us, | |
| Lost beyond hope, taken far out of sight, | |
| Not twice in the world shall the gods do thus. | |
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| Had it been so hard for my love? but I, | 65 |
| Though the gods gave all that a god can give, | |
| I had chosen rather the gift to die, | |
| Cease, and be glad above all that live. | |
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| For the Loire would have driven us down to the sea, | |
| And the sea would have pitched us from shoal to shoal; | 70 |
| And I should have held you, and you held me, | |
| As flesh holds flesh, and the soul the soul. | |
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| Could I change you, help you to love me, sweet, | |
| Could I give you the love that would sweeten death, | |
| We should yield, go down, locked hands and feet, | 75 |
| Die, drown together, and breath catch breath; | |
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| But you would have felt my soul in a kiss, | |
| And known that once if I loved you well; | |
| And I would have given my soul for this | |
| To burn for ever in burning hell. | 80 |
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