 | Verses by W. H. Mallock |  |
69
TO AN ENGAGED WOMAN
Which is the better, which the kinder part—
To leave you quite, to cast you quite aside,
And in one cold farewell to hide with art
The pain and passion nature will not hide;
Or still to hold and fold you to my heart,
And in a vain dream dream you still my bride,
Nor ever call one loving word the last,
Until the past become indeed the past?
To leave you quite, to cast you quite aside,
And in one cold farewell to hide with art
The pain and passion nature will not hide;
Or still to hold and fold you to my heart,
And in a vain dream dream you still my bride,
Nor ever call one loving word the last,
Until the past become indeed the past?
This is the question which, this whole blank day,
I ask my heart, as I sit here alone,
Watching the dull waves break in Beaulieu bay;
And answer from my heart receive I none.
What makes it mute? you ask. I will not play
With hackneyed phrases. Oh, my own, my own,
There is no need to say my heart is breaking;
Pain makes it mute, although 'tis only aching.
I ask my heart, as I sit here alone,
Watching the dull waves break in Beaulieu bay;
And answer from my heart receive I none.
What makes it mute? you ask. I will not play
With hackneyed phrases. Oh, my own, my own,
There is no need to say my heart is breaking;
Pain makes it mute, although 'tis only aching.
70
Pain in my heart, and silence in my ears,
Gloom in my eyes—my eyes and ears that miss
Your eyes and voice, and vague regrets and fears
Clouding my thoughts—my life is come to this:
With one keen sense through all, that all my years
Have closed their meaning in your hopeless kiss.
Ah! once again, before the moment slips,
Love, let me leave my life upon your lips.
Gloom in my eyes—my eyes and ears that miss
Your eyes and voice, and vague regrets and fears
Clouding my thoughts—my life is come to this:
With one keen sense through all, that all my years
Have closed their meaning in your hopeless kiss.
Ah! once again, before the moment slips,
Love, let me leave my life upon your lips.
What! do you chide me for that desperate cry,
And say I tempt you? Yes, I feel you do.
Listen to me, then; I have this reply:
Let Love, my loved one, judge 'twixt me and you.
Inquire of Love, who still stands lingering by,
And gives us still his licence to be true,
And will not wholly leave us, till betwixt
My life and yours there is the great gulf fixed.
And say I tempt you? Yes, I feel you do.
Listen to me, then; I have this reply:
Let Love, my loved one, judge 'twixt me and you.
Inquire of Love, who still stands lingering by,
And gives us still his licence to be true,
And will not wholly leave us, till betwixt
My life and yours there is the great gulf fixed.
Ask Him, for He has made you one with me;
You are with me, and around me everywhere.
I feel you in the mountains and the sea,
And when I breathe you feed me in the air.
And oh, my soul's true soul, the thought of thee
Moves me to pray, and mixes with my prayer.
Ask Him, for still—He still can point to-day
Towards Heaven, and say, ‘In me behold the way.
You are with me, and around me everywhere.
I feel you in the mountains and the sea,
And when I breathe you feed me in the air.
And oh, my soul's true soul, the thought of thee
Moves me to pray, and mixes with my prayer.
Ask Him, for still—He still can point to-day
Towards Heaven, and say, ‘In me behold the way.
71
Ask Him to-day. He will have said ‘Farewell,’
Farewell to you, farewell to me—to-morrow:
And where He dwelt another Love will dwell,
With haggard, pitying eyes, and lips that borrow
Their hopeless sentence from the gates of Hell,
‘Through me the way is to the eternal sorrow’;
And lure and warn us in the same low breath—
‘Take life from me, but know my life is death.’
Farewell to you, farewell to me—to-morrow:
And where He dwelt another Love will dwell,
With haggard, pitying eyes, and lips that borrow
Their hopeless sentence from the gates of Hell,
‘Through me the way is to the eternal sorrow’;
And lure and warn us in the same low breath—
‘Take life from me, but know my life is death.’
| Verses by W. H. Mallock | |