 | The Poetical Works of John Payne |  |
ALOE-BLOSSOM.
LIFE stayed for me within a breach of days,Sundered athwart the grey and rocky years:
Above, the day was dim to me for fears
And memories of the many-chasmed ways
Through which my feet had struggled. At amaze,
Silent I stood and listened with wide ears,
As for the coming of some Fate that nears
At last across the moon-mist and the haze.
The haggard earth lay speechless at my feet;
But, as I waited, suddenly there came
Within me as the flowering of a flame;
And like the mystic bud that bursts to meet
Its hundredth Spring with thunder and acclaim,
Love flowered upon me, terrible and sweet.
| The Poetical Works of John Payne | |