 | Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) |  |
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INCONGRUITIES.
I.
I looked within the colorless face, last night,
Of one for whom life promised, when he went,
The alluring fruit of rich accomplishment—
One dowered to find rare favor in the sight
Of all who set their spirits toward the light;
One molded to be nobly eminent.
Yet ah! that in this great sweet heart should glide
The subtle and fatal curse, too late espied!..
He pressed the pistol to his brow, and died!
Of one for whom life promised, when he went,
The alluring fruit of rich accomplishment—
One dowered to find rare favor in the sight
Of all who set their spirits toward the light;
One molded to be nobly eminent.
Yet ah! that in this great sweet heart should glide
The subtle and fatal curse, too late espied!..
He pressed the pistol to his brow, and died!
I meet amid my walk, from day to day,
A little faded man, low-bowed with years.
From him time's tyrannies, that disdain men's tears,
Health, kindred, wealth and friends have stolen away.
And yet to its hopeless aching crumbling clay
His tired-out soul with stubborn clutch adheres.
O human life! thou sphinx, whose haughty will
Forever through the ages gives us still
These baffling riddles that we solve so ill!
A little faded man, low-bowed with years.
From him time's tyrannies, that disdain men's tears,
Health, kindred, wealth and friends have stolen away.
And yet to its hopeless aching crumbling clay
His tired-out soul with stubborn clutch adheres.
O human life! thou sphinx, whose haughty will
Forever through the ages gives us still
These baffling riddles that we solve so ill!
II.
There were two men, each greatly loathing each,
Because of battling interests and the greed
For goals of rule that either strained to reach,
And rivalry of differing aim and deed.
And both won much, though either failed to fall,
And still each loathed his fellow till the last;
Nor did their great hates pass away at all
Till either's power to loathe or love was past.
Because of battling interests and the greed
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And rivalry of differing aim and deed.
And both won much, though either failed to fall,
And still each loathed his fellow till the last;
Nor did their great hates pass away at all
Till either's power to loathe or love was past.
And after? .. Why, their tombs' old sculptured pride
Rise in the regal abbey, side by side,
Where friends devoutly laid them when they died.
Rise in the regal abbey, side by side,
Where friends devoutly laid them when they died.
There was a man that loved a woman well,
Even loved with so all-dominant a fire
That only thus could he make language tell
The depth and breadth and height of his desire:
“When we are dead, pray Heaven that either lies
In graves whose mantling grasses intertwine!
For were we laid apart, my dust would rise
And die again that it might rest by thine!”
Even loved with so all-dominant a fire
That only thus could he make language tell
The depth and breadth and height of his desire:
“When we are dead, pray Heaven that either lies
In graves whose mantling grasses intertwine!
For were we laid apart, my dust would rise
And die again that it might rest by thine!”
And after? .. Why, the woman sleeps to-day,
Dreamless and easeful, under graveyard clay.
Where sleeps her love? The immense sea does not say!
Dreamless and easeful, under graveyard clay.
Where sleeps her love? The immense sea does not say!
| Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) | |