THE CHALICE
Not by my power alone, but thou and I
Together thinking, working, loving on
Achievement-wards, as all brave souls have gone,
Perchance should find new star-drifts in the sky
That curves above humanity, and set
Some new interpretation on life’s page;
Should serve the strivings of a widening age,
And fashion wisdom from the social fret.
Deep did Time’s lances go; thou pluck’st them forth,
And on my sullen woundings laid the balm
Of thy life’s sweetness. Oh, let my love be worth
The keeping. My head beneath thy palm,
Once more I lift Love’s chalice to thine eyes:
Not till thou blessest me will I arise.
MIO DESTINO
Here, making count, at every step I see
Something in her, like to a hidden thought
Within my life, that long time I had sought,
But never found till her soul spoke to me.
And if she said a thousand times, “I did
Not call thee, thou cam’st seeking; not my voice
Was it thou heard’st; thy love was not my choice!”
I should straightway reply, “That of thee hid,
Even from thyself, lest it should startle thee,
Hath called me, made me slave and king in one;
And when the mists of Time shall rise, and we
Stand forth, it shall be said, Since Time begun
Ye two were called as one from that high hill,
Where the creating Master hath His will.”
I HAVE BEHELD
I have beheld a multitude stand still
In such deep silence that a sudden pain
Struck through the heart in sharing the tense strain,
And all the world seemed bounded by one will.
But when precipitated on the sea
Of human feeling was the incident
That caught their wonder; then the skies were rent
With quivering sound, with passion’s liberty.
So have I stood before this parting day,
With chilly fingers pressed upon my breast,
That my heart burst not fleshen bands away,
And my sharp cry break through my lady’s rest.
I have shut burning eyelids on the sight
Of this dread time that scorches my sad night.