 | Eclogues and monodramas |  |
But James, who mended slowly, chanced to read
The County Herald, lighting on the news:
And for a space the ceiling and the walls
Swam round him, sick and stunned. He giddily rose,
And strove to dress and dash aside his pain;
But on him came his weakness and prevailed,
As clearer flashed conviction of his full
And utter desolation. Could he mend
An hour of her irrevocable doom
Now were his strength at fullest? Lost as dead
Was Mary now: could strong despair unknit
Life-woven vows, the goodman from his wife?
And, if he moved, of bad should worse ensue
To Mary full as wretched as himself,
If he knew right, in this thrice-loathed result
Of motherly compulsion. Fool and blind
To waver two months since: then blindly ride
A break-neck course in spleen: thus men lost all.
He wished his neck had broken: this had spared
All self-reproach, much bitterness of time
Hereafter, and the sting of wasted chance.
He must not even see her, but sit still,
In forced inaction dribbling out his days
With trivial occupation as they came.
The County Herald, lighting on the news:
And for a space the ceiling and the walls
Swam round him, sick and stunned. He giddily rose,
And strove to dress and dash aside his pain;
But on him came his weakness and prevailed,
As clearer flashed conviction of his full
And utter desolation. Could he mend
An hour of her irrevocable doom
Now were his strength at fullest? Lost as dead
Was Mary now: could strong despair unknit
Life-woven vows, the goodman from his wife?
And, if he moved, of bad should worse ensue
To Mary full as wretched as himself,
If he knew right, in this thrice-loathed result
Of motherly compulsion. Fool and blind
To waver two months since: then blindly ride
95
He wished his neck had broken: this had spared
All self-reproach, much bitterness of time
Hereafter, and the sting of wasted chance.
He must not even see her, but sit still,
In forced inaction dribbling out his days
With trivial occupation as they came.
| Eclogues and monodramas | |