A LAMENT
FOR THE DEAD OF THE JEANNETTE BROUGHT HOME ON THE FRISIA
I
O gates of ice! long have ye held our loved ones.
Ye Cruel! how could ye keep from us them for whom
our hearts yearned—our dear ones, our fathers, our
children, our brothers, our lovers?
Cold and Sleet, Darkness and Ice! hard have ye held
them; ye would not let them go.
Their hands ye have bound fast; their feet ye have
detained; and well have ye laid hold upon the hearts of
our loved ones.
O silent Arctic Night! thou hast wooed them from us.
O Secret of the white and unknown world! too strong
hast thou been for us; we were as nothing to thee; thou
hast drawn them from us; thou wouldst not let them go.
The long day past; thou wouldst not let them go.
The long, long night came and went; thou wouldst not
let them go.
O thou insatiate! What to thee are youth, and life, and
hope, and love?
For thou art Death, not Life; thou art Despair, not
Hope.
Naught to thee the rush of youthful blood; naught to
thee the beauty and strength of our loved ones.
The breath of their bodies was not sweet to thee; they
loved thee, and thou lovedst not them.
They followed thee, thou didst not look upon them;
but still, O thou inviolate! still did they follow thee.
Thee did they follow through storm, through perils of
the ice, and of the unknown darkness.
The sharp spears of the frost they feared not; the terrors
of death they feared not. For thee, for thee, for thee,
not for us; only that they might look upon thy face!
All these they endured for thee; the thought of us
whom yet they loved, this also they endured for thee.
For thou art beautiful, beyond the beauty of woman.
In thy hair are the stars of night. Thou wrappest about
thee garments of fire that burn not, and are never quenched;
When thou movest they are moved; when thou breathest
they tremble.
Yea, awful art thou in thy beauty; with white fingers
beckoning in mists and shadows of the frozen sea; drawing
to thee the hearts of heroes.
II
Long, long they have they tarried in thy gates, O North!
But now thou hast given them up. Lo, they come to us
once more—our belovèd, our only ones!
O dearest, why have ye stayed so long?
With ye, night and day have come and gone, but with
us there was night only.
But no, we will not reproach ye, hearts of our hearts,
dearest and best; our fathers, our children, our brothers,
our lovers!
Come back to us! Behold our arms are open for you;
ye are ours; ye have returned unto us; ye shall never go
hence again.
But why are ye silent, why do ye not stir, why do ye not
speak to us, O belovèd ones?
White are your cheeks like snow; your eyes they do not
look upon us.
So long ye have been gone, and is this your joy to see us
once more?
Lo! do we not welcome ye? Are not our souls glad?
Do not our tears, long kept, fall upon your faces?
Or do ye but sleep well, after those hard and weary
labors? O, now awaken, for ye shall take rest and pleasure;
here are your homes and kindred!
Listen, belovèd: here is your sister, here is your brother,
here is your lover!
III
They will not hearken to our voices.
They are still; their eyes look not upon us.
O insatiate! O Secret of the white and unknown world,
cruel indeed thou art!
Thou hast sent back to us our best belovèd; their
bodies thou hast rendered up, but their spirits thou hast
taken away from us forever.
In life thou didst hold them from us—and in death,
in death they are thine.
New York, February 20, 1884.
