III
NOW bending like a windy stem I strive,
Yet ever onward, step by step, descend.
The silence is a threat, the dark alive,
And love how far, how far, my journey’s end.
It is the girlhood dream I leave behind,
And sweeter vision never witched a maid.
Into the threatening shades I wander blind:
Ah, Mary, help me now! I am afraid.
Yet with my fears I sway and follow still;
The doorway gleams, the pleading magic charms,
Step after step, with fluttering breath and will—
Step after step ... at last ... into his arms.
IV
BEYOND this purple shadow glows
My golden garden loud with bees,
And windy grey and silver flows
Along the slopes of olive trees.
Before a sleeping flower uncurled,
Before the early winds were born,
I woke for joy in such a world,
And with the linnets shared the morn.
Remembering love, I woke and smiled,
And heard the morning linnets sing,
And sang for love, and they for wild
Delight of song and sun and spring.