 | The Burden of the Bell and Other Lyrics |  |
138
A FRAGMENT.
Do you remember how we talked that night?How wildly, sitting in the waning light,
Under the spreading ash-tree on the lawn?
Do you remember what a thing forlorn
Seemed Duty to us then—Duty, a pale,
Cold, ominous shadow, missioned to prevail
O'er Love, the beautiful—o'er Love the life,
As we conceived it, in that bitter strife
With our hard fate's prescriptions:—ay, to part,
To die,—what difference? each bleeding heart
Accepted both in one, and hailed the tomb
As the best refuge from the sterner doom.
And ah! do you remember how through all
The grief and the despair, our lips let fall
Words that were meant for comfort, that essayed
To cheer, to strengthen—then broke off dismayed,
Sounding so hollow, false—mere mockery!
And how at last we sat unconsciously
139
Over the uplands, 'neath the evening star,
Came with sonorous cadence on the breeze,
Majestic burden to our miseries,
The passionate wailing of the smitten seas!
| The Burden of the Bell and Other Lyrics | |