SAHARA.
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I stood by Honor and the Dean,They seated in the London train.A month from her! yet this had been,Ere now, without such bitter pain.But neighbourhood makes parting light,And distance remedy has none;Alone, she near, I felt as mightA blind man sitting in the sun;She near, all for the time was well;Hope’s self, when we were far apart,With lonely feeling, like the smellOf heath on mountains, fill’d my heart.To see her seem’d delight’s full scope,And her kind smile, so clear of care,Ev’n then, though darkening all my hope,Gilded the cloud of my despair. 2 She had forgot to bring a book.I lent one; blamed the print for old;And did not tell her that she tookA Petrarch worth its weight in gold.I hoped she’d lose it; for my loveWas grown so dainty, high, and nice,It prized no luxury aboveThe sense of fruitless sacrifice. 3 The bell rang, and, with shrieks like death,Link catching link, the long array,With ponderous pulse and fiery breath,Proud of its burthen, swept away;And through the lingering crowd I broke,Sought the hill-side, and thence, heart-sick,Beheld, far off, the little smokeAlong the landscape kindling quick. 4 What should I do, where should I go,Now she was gone, my love! for mineShe was, whatever here belowCross’d or usurp’d my right divine.Life, without her, was vain and gross,The glory from the world was gone,And on the gardens of the CloseAs on Sahara shone the sun.Oppress’d with her departed grace,My thoughts on ill surmises fed;The harmful influence of the placeShe went to fill’d my soul with dread.She, mixing with the people there,Might come back alter’d, having caughtThe foolish, fashionable airOf knowing all, and feeling nought.Or, giddy with her beauty’s praise,She’d scorn our simple country life,Its wholesome nights and tranquil days.And would not deign to be my Wife.‘My Wife,’ ‘my Wife,’ ah, tenderest word!How oft, as fearful she might hear,Whispering that name of ‘Wife,’ I heardThe chiming of the inmost sphere. 5 I pass’d the home of my regret.The clock was striking in the hall,And one sad window open yet,Although the dews began to fall.Ah, distance show’d her beauty’s scope!How light of heart and innocentThat loveliness which sicken’d hopeAnd wore the world for ornament!How perfectly her life was framed;And, thought of in that passionate mood,How her affecting graces shamedThe vulgar life that was but good! 6 I wonder’d, would her bird be fed,Her rose-plots water’d, she not by;Loading my breast with angry dreadOf light, unlikely injury.So, fill’d with love and fond remorse,I paced the Close, its every partEndow’d with reliquary forceTo heal and raise from death my heart.How tranquil and unsecularThe precinct! Once, through yonder gate,I saw her go, and knew from farHer love-lit form and gentle state.Her dress had brush’d this wicket; hereShe turn’d her face, and laugh’d, with lightLike moonbeams on a wavering mere.Weary beforehand of the night,I went; the blackbird, in the woodTalk’d by himself, and eastward grewIn heaven the symbol of my mood,Where one bright star engross’d the blue.
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