 | The coming of love |  |
XVII
NATURA MALIGNA
(Percy, in the Alps, whither he has gone to escape
the haunting effect of English scenery upon his
mind, has, after living alone in a lonely chalet,
passed into a state of spiritual exaltation, and
has come to look upon Nature with the puritanical
eyes of a Hindoo Saivite, as being the
malignant foe of Man. And yet the dominant
thought drives him to go every morning to
watch for a sign at sunrise.)
The Lady of the Hills with crimes untold
Followed my feet with azure eyes of prey;
By glacier-brink she stood—by cataract-spray—
When mists were dire, or avalanche-echoes rolled.
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And if a footprint shone at break of day,
My flesh would quail, but straight my soul would say:
“'Tis hers whose hand God's mightier hand doth hold.”
I trod her snow-bridge, for the moon was bright,
Her icicle-arch across the sheer crevasse,
When lo, she stood! . . . . God made her let me pass,
Then felled the bridge! . . . . Oh, there in sallow light,
There down the chasm, I saw her cruel, white,
And all my wondrous days as in a glass.
| The coming of love | |