 | Maiden Ecstasy |  |
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THE CHILD OF ROMANCE.
I
As suns may rise and set unknownIn paths beyond the farthest ken,
So maiden thoughts, in journeyings lone,
May hide from sight of men:
Though where they wander waves may only flow,
They seem in sunny gardens to alight,
Gathering their flowers where buds can only blow
To bloom in visions bright.
II
Oft may a maiden's eyes be liftAnd shed their longings o'er the air,
And see a vision towards them drift
Of him she deems most fair,
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As though in life to play a lover's part,
Not pausing even to question who it is
Whose loadstone lures his heart.
III
So dreams the daughter of RomanceBy seas that delve their shifting caves,
And sows the love-germs of her glance
Among the ploughed-up waves.
So is her future, ere it comes, besprent
O'er her rapt eyes and there doth it disclose
The being unto whom her heart's consent
Prophetically flows.
IV
Where streams of water-lightning ranAll night along the ocean-foam
Romance had ruled, ere known to man,
That dreamy maiden's home,
Had lit up darkness 'twixt the flash of waves.
There, sitting with her elbow on her knee
While flame the beacon-rock beneath her laves,
She looks out on the sea.
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V
There doth the glow-worm gild its grangeOf wavy grass and o'er the blades,
Unconscious of its love-lamp, range
The pale, green misty shades.
There oft this child of young Romance would sit
Her head sunk back, her raven hair afloat
Self-wreathed in verdure, by the glow-worm lit,
Chartering her idle boat.
VI
But the dream passes from her faceNow seas that feel the lightning-lash
Run at the troubled ship in chase
Along the beacon's flash.
Her kindled eyes, lit up in sudden fear,
Keep watch and with the pilotage of hope
Draw the rocks off; the crazy vessel steer
Down the waves' curling slope.
VII
The beacon turns, the sea is black,And her strained eyes more darkly glare
Until her tower-flame flashes back
Its steady, wondering stare,
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A ship at sea that like a mountain quakes,
Foundering, while with the wave its sundered helm
On the rock-shallow breaks.
VIII
Though sailors, strong and brave, may quail,Her fears are younger than their fears;
Though doubt may other breasts assail,
She takes the helm and steers,
Steers through the hearts of men and through the waves;
A thought of danger would her visions mock,
And from the storm the little crew she saves
And guides them to her rock.
IX
Far off from where her watch-boat lay,The crested waves upbear her fame,
And where they lave a wreck-strewn bay
A billow sounds her name.
But she has dearer thoughts than other's praise,
And to her mood the rock upon the shore
Brings back her visions, and of other days
She dreams her dream once more.
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X
When thinks she of that troubled nightLeaves it a dream that comes to pass?
She muses in the glow-worm light
That smoulders through the grass:
Is it her dream that draws the one she loves,
The form her soul has fashioned to her own?
Uncalled he comes who through her vision roves
At eventide alone.
XI
A youth looks on her yet delaysHis steps, for he must watch awhile
A love-dream lit by warmer rays
Than light a passing smile.
A sailor-youth she saved and saw no more;
She knows him not, though thinking how he blessed
The glorious maid who steered him to the shore,
Right through the billows' crest.
XII
She sees him not as on the nightWhen his lost vessel went in twain,
But as of old, when o'er her sight
He came to flit again:
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In more than dream, that never knew her start:
But now he stays, and with her doth abide
That image of her heart.
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