O day and night! O day and night! ye knew it ever!
Ye saw it written in the world's first golden prime!
And smiled your giant smile at all my rash endeavour
To snatch the cup unfill'd from out the hand of Time.
He comes, O day and night! Spirits attending,
Swift formless messengers my ev'ry sense apprise!
He comes! the bright fair head o'er some old book low bending
Dear Lord, at last! his eyes have met my eyes—
Gleam of light goes quivering across the happy skies!
* * * * *
O day and night! O day and night! Love sits between us.
Far out the rising tide comas sweeping o'er the sand.
The murmurous pine trees lend their purple shade to screen us,
And breathe their fragrant sighs above the quiet land.
And, like a sigh, the sunset blaze is over,
The folding grey has veiled its colours bright;
While swift from view fade out the gulls that hover,
As round us sinks at last, on pinions light,
The dark and radiant clarity of the beautiful still night.
O day and night! O day and night! no words are spoken.
Such pleasant joy profound no words could well express:
His wand'ring fingers smooth my hair in silent token,
And all my being answers to the tender mute caress.
My head is resting on his breast for pillow,
And as by music moved my soul is thrill'd;
Flow on and clasp the land, O bursting billow!
O breezes, tell the mountains many-rill'd!
Our hearts now know each other, and our hope is all-fulfill'd.
O day and night! O day and night! no shadow crosses
This long'd-for solemn hour of all-forgetful bliss;
No chilling thought, or stalking dread arising, tosses
A poison'd drop of bitterness to spoil the ling'ring kiss:
No mem'ries past or future fears assailing—
As soon might doubt bedim the stars that shine!
Or souls released reach Paradise bewailing
The end of pain, and clemency divine:
The glorious present holds us: I am his and he is mine!"
* * * * *
O day and night! O day and night! and was it madness?
Lo! all is changing, even sky, and sea, and shore;
The heaving water ebbs itself away in sadness,
The waves receding sigh, "Delight returns no more!"
Far down the East the dawn is dimly burning,
Its first chill breath has shivered thro' my frame,
And with the light comes cruel Thought returning,
The air seems full of voices speaking blame;
Another day commences, but the world is not the same!
O day and night! O day and night! its rashes pass'd us,
We stand upon the brink and watch, the strong deep tide,
And shrink already from the howls that soon must blast us,
The world that sins unchidden, and the laws that would divide.
"O Love, they rest in peace whom ocean covers!"
One plunge, one clasp supernal, one long kiss!
Then downward, like those old Italian lovers.
Descend for ever through the long abyss,
And float together, happy, all eternity like this!
The charm of the reader's voice had held us spellbound, and the poem was well received; but after the usual compliments there was a pause, and then Ideala burst out impetuously: "I am sick of those old Italian lovers," she said; "they float into everything. Their story is the essence with which two-thirds of our love literature is flavoured. We should never have received them in society; why do we tolerate them in books? I like my company to be respectable even there; and when an author asks me to admire and sympathise with such people he insults me."
"They must be brought in, though, for the sake of contrast," somebody observed.