University of Virginia Library

[They were not married by a mutt'ring priest]

They were not married by a mutt'ring priest,
With superstitious rites, and senseless words,
Out-snuffled from an old worm-eaten book
In a dark corner (railed off like a sheep-pen,)
Of an old house, that fools do call a Church!

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289

Their altar was the flowery lap of earth—
The starry empyreum their vast temple—
Their book, each other's eyes—and Love himself,
Parson, and Clerk, and Father to the bride!—
Holy espousals! whereat wept with joy
The spirit of the Universe.—In sooth
There was a sort of drizzling rain that day,
For I remember (having left at home
My parapluie, a name than umbrella
Far more expressive,) that I stood for shelter
Under an entry not twelve paces off,
(It might be ten,) from sheriff Waithman's shop,
For half an hour or more, and there I mused,
(Mine eyes upon the running kennel fixed,
That hurried on a het'rogenous mass
To th' common-sewer, its dark reservoir,)
I mused upon the running stream of life.