University of Virginia Library

III. Part III.

“Oh, that I might look on Him whom I have pierced! that I might see his face once more!

For when the arrow sank into the heart of my beloved, then did it cleave through my own.

And when he died, I knew that I loved him. I knew myself worthy of his love.

Now will I arise and look upon his face; he will not remember mine.

For days have passed over me, and years and ages. I have dwelt in a wild and desert place.

It is long since we played within the happy garden, long since he looked upon me from the cruel stake.

Long, too, since he hath sent me any word of greeting; yet I know that my brother is yet alive.”

Then she arose up with the earliest morning; it was autumn, and the woods were still;

But as she passed along the green forest tracks swiftly, a single leaf fell,

A crimson leaf, that dropped upon her bosom lightly. I saw not from what tree it came.

And from the bough one only bird sang sweetly, a bird whose breast has been marked by fire;

The bird who forsakes not, nor is forsaken; who stays when the rest have flown.

And as the day drew onwards to the evening, she came forth upon a boundless plain,

Whereof had been reaped a mighty harvest; the ground was trodden and bare;

Yet I heard no shouting of the reapers, nor saw gleaners carrying home their sheaves;

But from afar a sound broke upon the stillness, the clashing of spear and shield;

The tramp of a countless multitude, as of men who march in order and array of battle.

And when she drew near the happy garden, the garden where she had played of old,

She found herself in a place she knew not, in a place that knew her no more.

For adown its cool moss-grown walks, and beneath its dark fragrant cedars,

Moved ranks and ranks of angels, in exercise for glorious war.

All mailed were they in shining armour, terrible to the eye and heart;

And at their head was one who was their prince and leader; terrible, though not clothed in mail,

Him to whom she had been minded to send a secret message. But while she mused thereon in thought,

And lingered beneath the shadow of the cedar, a sudden light sprung forth,

That searched through and through the garden like a keen insatiate arrow.

Light fell within the rose's heart from the red flushing of the evening sky.

It bloomed blood-red against the darkening cedarbough; the lilies stood up in flame;

Even the marygold looked no longer friendly; it was orbed and rayed with fire.

From the weapons and the armour of the angels flashed lines of intolerable light.

She found no place to flee unto; no place save her brother's heart.

She fled onwards swiftly to meet him; swiftly he came forward unto her.

He spake to her no word of greeting, but folded her to his kingly breast.

She clasped her wasted arms about him so closely that his wound brake forth,

And his blood was sprinkled on her raiment; it became shining even like his own.

Like his, too, became her mien and aspect. I know that they will part no more.