 | Lays of France |  |
Some age ago, Love's splendid lures
Through the enchanted world made fair
Each woman's soft enamouring snare;
And the contagion that endures
Among men's hearts spread everywhere
Love's ailing that love only cures;
And, far as the unblemished fire
Flooded down joyous from the sun
Caused rapturous living and desire
Unearthly in the earth, not one
Of fair mankind was free to shun
The sudden endless fate of flame
Caught in the hazard of a look
Crossing a kindled look. The same
Frail human life it was that shook
With the immortal burning soul
Of love traversing it, consumed
With bearing inwardly the whole
Of some celestial joy, or sole
—In fair midst of the world that bloomed
Or withered—through the long sharp throe
Of some inexplicable woe
Reaching out to a shoreless sea
Of sadness after death. The earth
Was beautiful with flower and tree,
And full of the delicious mirth
And low soft endless jubilee
Of bird and nameless creature free
To feel the sun; and, where the grave
Saddened and broke the last year's green,
There most was this year's summer brave
With glorious flower and fresh with keen
New scent. And men and women, thrilled
With their own passionate thoughts unseen,
Went fair about the fair world, filled
With wondrous joy or misery
Killing them at the heart; beheld
The sun, and looked upon the sky,
And saw the flowers, and felt go by
The summer; and were not changed, but held
Their secret of eternity
Within them. And the earth was glad,
Whether the heart was blithe or sad.
Through the enchanted world made fair
Each woman's soft enamouring snare;
And the contagion that endures
Among men's hearts spread everywhere
Love's ailing that love only cures;
And, far as the unblemished fire
Flooded down joyous from the sun
Caused rapturous living and desire
Unearthly in the earth, not one
Of fair mankind was free to shun
The sudden endless fate of flame
93
Crossing a kindled look. The same
Frail human life it was that shook
With the immortal burning soul
Of love traversing it, consumed
With bearing inwardly the whole
Of some celestial joy, or sole
—In fair midst of the world that bloomed
Or withered—through the long sharp throe
Of some inexplicable woe
Reaching out to a shoreless sea
Of sadness after death. The earth
Was beautiful with flower and tree,
And full of the delicious mirth
And low soft endless jubilee
Of bird and nameless creature free
To feel the sun; and, where the grave
Saddened and broke the last year's green,
There most was this year's summer brave
With glorious flower and fresh with keen
New scent. And men and women, thrilled
With their own passionate thoughts unseen,
Went fair about the fair world, filled
94
Killing them at the heart; beheld
The sun, and looked upon the sky,
And saw the flowers, and felt go by
The summer; and were not changed, but held
Their secret of eternity
Within them. And the earth was glad,
Whether the heart was blithe or sad.
| Lays of France | |