And heard a step tramp over the deck above,
Ringing like iron.... The curtains by her bed
Quivered forever to the engine’s move,
And from the lamp a quivering light was shed....
These things would all go on when she was dead....
Trembling, with misty eyes, she loosed the pin
Under her throat ... mad fires whirled up within....
Mad fires whirled up, ungulfing all her soul;
Beyond the sun and stars, across all space,
Power that earth nor heaven could now control,
She heard her lover come, with quickening pace;
Nowhere to hide! Alas, his shining face,
Though she hid under seas would find her there,
Though she hid under mountains lay her bare!
Across the stars, nearer, more near it came,
And now earth shook with it, and now the sea,
And her white body, tremulous with shame,
From its sheer anguish knew that it was he,—
Yearned for this wonder that was soon to be;
And all her heart made music for his feet,
All of the world re-echoed to their beat....
Marriage of youth! And quick a darkness fell,
And time and space went down, consumed in fire;
Through that dark space, only one breath, to tell
That here was youth, and love, and wild desire:
One heart that to itself sang ever higher,
Tremulous, passionate, despite all pain,—
“How wonderful!—how wonderful!”—again.
III
October earth, with scarlet maple-leaf,
With oak-leaves brown, with flaming leaves and pale;
Mysterious autumn, symbol of all grief,
Symbol of lives that die and hopes that fail:
Now on the threshing-floor has fallen the flail,
The hands are elsewhere that have stored the grain;
Now comes the season of snows and bitter rain.
Weeks passed.... And then one day there came a note
To New York for this youth ... he tore and read.
It was that girl he played with on the boat....
Scarcely three shaky lines ... in which she said,
That she was sick with typhoid, nearly dead,—
Wanted to say she loved him; then she cried,
O God, if he would come before she died!—
Loved him!... a blackness fell; and in his eyes,
So long unused, and even now ashamed,
He felt the warm tears quickening to rise....
Loved him!—he had not known.... Could he be blamed?—
Then a great light of sorrow in him flamed,—
And bitterness, his sight swam quickly dim,—
Thinking how little it had meant to him!
Scarce knowing why, he packed his things and went....
He was surprised, on seeing her, to find how lovely
she had been, though pale and spent....
He sat beside her, striving to be kind,
Stroking her forehead.... Yet, she had divined,
And known too bitterly, before she died,
This man had never loved her, but had lied....
And he knew this: he knew that she had known;
In her dark eyes he saw the mastered yearning,
All the unspoken love that died in moan,
Shrunk on itself, through all her body burning....
And many days the memory came returning
Of her last kiss,—quivering, wet with tears,—
Her clinging hands, her brimmed eyes dark with fears....