University of Virginia Library

THE CHOICE

I.

Two women stood before me, and I heard
A voice that said, “Look well, consider, choose.”
The one wore dainty feet in golden shoes,
And head made bright with plumes of tropic bird,
And written on her brow that who preferred
To dwell with her in heaven should straightway lose
The sound of earth's distress; in quiet hues
The other clad, my heart the sooner stirred,
For in her I was swift to recognise
My pale sweet city, and she looked to me
With mute appealing in her stricken eyes,
And, brushing Paradise aside, “I see,”
Said I, “my Lady in this lowly guise;
My choice is made already,—I love thee.”

II.

Then Paradise was angry, and she turned
With a majestic tossing of her head.
Not through those golden gates shall I be led:
No home for me in that high city spurned,
Nor choice amid the costly tapers burned
That round about sweet wealth of incense shed,
Nor any cunning cloak of white or red,
Nor harp for which my former spirit yearned.
But, hearken all, for here is my reward:
In that I took the lowly for my bride,
The humble present, she hath made me lord
Of many a future season's pomp and pride,
And made me master of her keen-edged sword
Of song, to wear in triumph at my side.

III.

In that I let the lyres and lutestrings go,
Enamoured of no beatific strain,
And here elected, stedfast, to remain
Where tides of silver Thames do ebb and flow,
For recompence I have been given to know
The beauty of the bud within the pain
We suffer, that the weary London rain
Shall bring to bloom at last, as white as snow.
I sacrificed the past, and I behold
A present greater,—let the future wait,
And left my lyre beside the city gate
For an obliging rose-winged saint to hold,
And lo! no organ now but doth unfold
Dreams far too golden-glorious to relate.