LOVE'S END.
In the deep woods we went, dim with the nearing night:
The dying sunset gilt the tree-stems with its light:
A star or two on high already was in sight.
We followed, without speech, the sombre forest-way:
Each unto each, indeed, no more we had to say;
For to an end, alas! our love was come, like Day.
Night hovered o'er our heads, as 'twere a vulture, fain
To swoop upon its prey; but, ere in Heaven inane
It grew, dead night it was within our souls in pain.
Forth to the plain we passed from out that heart of green:
Upon the yellowing wheat, like some primaeval queen,
The dying sunlight lay, impassive and serene.
A quail afar kept up its shrill continuous cry.
Then, sudden as a flood down-loosened from on high,
The darkness fell and night enveloped earth and sky.
The quail had ceased to chant its monotone of dole;
The shadows swallowed up the sunset, pole to pole;
Void everywhere and void eternal in my soul.
Through the wide meadows, set with oaks a century old,
The lone hay-scented ways, in silence stern and cold,
We followed, till the ground, slow-sloping, fold on fold,
Left open to our sight, across the narrow stream,
The belfry's feudal tower, that, blank of cresset-beam,
Stood sentinel above the drowsing hamlet's dream.
Silence o'er all and night: nought but the ripples' flow
To hearken. In the West, upon the horizon low,
A trembling star diffused its melancholy glow.
Our wandering steps we stayed, whereas the meadow-ways
Bent to the burgh, amidst the fleecy herds a-graze,
That with their mild slow air of doubt on us did gaze.
Eyes fixed on other's eyes, long looked we, each on each,
As if, in that supreme sad moment, fain to reach
The secret of our souls; then parted, without speech,
In silence. What availed discourse? It was the end.
Without handclasp or kiss, farewell of friend to friend,
We each of us our way disconsolate did wend.
Then, “Of Eternity,” quoth I unto the case,
“Why speak and say that death is but a halting-place,
“Wherefrom the soul shall rise, reclad with a new grace?
“Who shall be found to deem such doctrine credit-worth,
“Since Love, the source of life and principle of birth,
“Comes quicklier to an end than anything on earth?
“If we must rise again from underneath the grass,
“Why, then, of holiest Love, that brings all life to pass,
“Should nought (excepting hate it be) abide, alas?”
