| |
| TWICE thirty centuries and more ago, | |
| All in a heavenly Abyssinian vale, | |
| Man first met woman; and the ruddy snow | |
| On many-ridgèd Abora turn’d pale, | |
| And the song choked within the nightingale. | 5 |
| A mild white furnace in the thorough blast | |
| Of purest spirit seem’d She as she pass’d; | |
| And of the Man enough that this be said, | |
| He look’d her Head. | |
| Towards their bower | 10 |
| Together as they went, | |
| With hearts conceiving torrents of content, | |
| And linger’d prologue fit for Paradise, | |
| He, gathering power | |
| From dear persuasion of the dim-lit hour, | 15 |
| And doubted sanction of her sparkling eyes, | |
| Thus supplicates her conjugal assent, | |
| And thus she makes replies: | |
| ‘Lo, Eve, the Day burns on the snowy height, | |
| But here is mellow night!’ | 20 |
| ‘Here let us rest. The languor of the light | |
| Is in my feet. | |
| It is thy strength, my Love, that makes me weak; | |
| Thy strength it is that makes my weakness sweet. | |
| What would thy kiss’d lips speak?’ | 25 |
| ‘See, what a world of roses I have spread | |
| To make the bridal bed. | |
| Come, Beauty’s self and Love’s, thus to thy throne be led!’ | |
| ‘My Lord, my Wisdom, nay! | |
| Does not yon love-delighted Planet run, | 30 |
| (Haply against her heart,) | |
| A space apart | |
| For ever from her strong-persuading Sun! | |
| O say, | |
| Shall we no voluntary bars | 35 |
| Set to our drift? I, Sister of the Stars, | |
| And Thou, my glorious, course-compelling Day!’ | |
| ‘Yea, yea! | |
| Was it an echo of her coming word | |
| Which, ere she spake, I heard? | 40 |
| Or through what strange distrust was I, her Head, | |
| Not first this thing to have said? | |
| Alway | |
| Speaks not within my breast | |
| The uncompulsive, great and sweet behest | 45 |
| Of something bright, | |
| Not named, not known, and yet more manifest | |
| Than is the morn, | |
| The sun being just at point then to be born? | |
| O Eve, take back thy “Nay”. | 50 |
| Trust me, Belovèd, ever in all to mean | |
| Thy blissful service, sacrificial, keen; | |
| But bondless be that service, and let speak—’ | |
| ‘This other world of roses in my cheek, | |
| Which hide them in thy breast, and deepening seek | 55 |
| That thou decree if they mean Yea or Nay.’ | |
| ‘Did e’er so sweet a word such sweet gainsay!’ | |
| ‘And when I lean, Love, on you, thus, and smile | |
| So that my Nay seems Yea, | |
| You must the while | 60 |
| Thence be confirm’d that I deny you still.’ | |
| ‘I will, I will!’ | |
| ‘And when my arms are round your neck, like this, | |
| And I, as now, | |
| Melt like a golden ingot in your kiss, | 65 |
| Then, more than ever, shall your splendid word | |
| Be as Archangel Michael’s severing sword! | |
| Speak, speak! | |
| Your might, Love, makes me weak, | |
| Your might it is that makes my weakness sweet.’ | 70 |
| ‘I vow, I vow!’ | |
| ‘And are you happy, O my Hero and Lord; | |
| And is your joy complete?’ | |
| ‘Yea, with my joyful heart my body rocks, | |
| And joy comes down from Heaven in floods and shocks, | 75 |
| As from Mount Abora comes the avalanche.’ | |
| ‘My Law, my Light! | |
| Then am I yours as your high mind may list. | |
| No wile shall lure you, none can I resist!’ | |
| Thus the first Eve | 80 |
| With much enamour’d Adam did enact | |
| Their mutual free contract | |
| Of virgin spousals, blissful beyond flight | |
| Of modern thought, with great intention staunch, | |
| Though unobliged until that binding pact. | 85 |
| Whether She kept her word, or He the mind | |
| To hold her, wavering, to his own restraint, | |
| Answer, ye pleasures faint, | |
| Ye fiery throes, and upturn’d eyeballs blind | |
| Of sick-at-heart Mankind, | 90 |
| Whom nothing succour can, | |
| Until a heaven-caress’d and happier Eve | |
| Be join’d with some glad Saint | |
| In like espousals, blessed upon Earth, | |
| And she her Fruit forth bring; | 95 |
| No numb, chill-hearted, shaken-witted thing, | |
| ’Plaining his little span, | |
| But of proud virgin joy the appropriate birth, | |
| The Son of God and Man. | |
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