“Then frame,” she cried, “wide fronts of crystal glass,
That I may show my laughter and my light—
Light like the sun’s by day, the stars’ by night—
Till rival heart-queens, envying, wail, ‘Alas,
Her glory!’ as they pass.”
“O maid misled!”
He sternly said,
Whose facile foresight pierced her dire;
“Where shall abide the soul when, sick of glee,
It shrinks, and hides, and prays no eye may see?
Those house them best who house for secrecy,
For you will tire.”
“A little chamber, then, with swan and dove
Ranged thickly, and engrailed with rare device
Of reds and purples, for a Paradise
Wherein my Love may greet me, I my Love,
When he shall know thereof?”
“This, too, is ill,”
He answered still,
The man who swayed her like a shade.
“An hour will come when sight of such sweet nook
Would bring a bitterness too sharp to brook,
When brighter eyes have won away his look;
For you will fade.”
Then said she faintly: “O, contrive some way—
Some narrow winding turret, quite mine own,
To reach a loft where I may grieve alone!
It is a slight thing; hence do not, I pray,
This last dear fancy slay!”
“Such winding ways
Fit not your days,”
Said he, the man of measuring eye;
“I must even fashion as my rule declares,
To wit: Give space (since life ends unawares)
To hale a coffined corpse adown the stairs;
For you will die.”
1867.
THE TWO MEN
There were two youths of equal age,
Wit, station, strength, and parentage;
They studied at the selfsame schools,
And shaped their thoughts by common rules.