The youths looked aside-to laugh there were a sin― And the maidens' lips trembled with smiles shut within : Quoth the priest-"Thou art wild, pretty boy! Blessed she Who prefers at her bridal a brown rosary To a worldly arraying!' The bridegroom spake low, and led onward the bride, They have knelt down together to rise up as one— The maidens looked forward, the youths looked around,— The priest never knew that she did so, but still "I have sinned," quoth he, "I have sinned, I wot As the choristers told it. The rite-book is closed, and the rite being done, What aileth the bridegroom? He glares blank and wide-Then suddenly turning, he kisseth the bride His lip stung her with cold: she glanced upwardly mute : "Mine own wife," he said, and fell stark at her foot In the word he was saying. They have lifted him up,—but his head sinks away,- Let his bride gaze upon him! Long and still was her gaze, while they chafed him there, And low on his body she droppeth adown “Didst call me thine own wife, beloved-thine own? She looked in his face earnest long, as in sooth There were hope of an answer,-and then kissed his mouth; And with head on his bosom, wept, wept bitterly,"Now, O God, take pity—take pity on me!— She was 'ware of a shadow that crossed where she lay; She dashed it in scorn to the marble-paved ground, FOURTH PART. ONORA looketh listlessly adown the garden walk : Of the stedfast skies above, the running brooks below ;— All things are the same but I;—only I am dreary; "Mother, brother, pull the flowers I planted in the spring, Whereat they pulled the summer flowers she planted in the spring, And her and them, all mournfully, to Agnes' shrine did bring. She looked up to the pictured saint, and gently shook her head"The picture is too calm for me—too calm for me,” she said : "The little flowers we brought with us, before it we may lay, For those are used to look at Heaven,—but I must turn away,— Because no sinner under sun can dare or bear to gaze On God's or angel's holiness, except in Jesu's face.” She spoke with passion after pause “And were it wisely done, To choose perhaps a love-lit hearth, instead of love and Heaven,- A rose that droppeth from the hand, that fadeth in the breast, see All blissful things depart from us, or ere we go to THEE? We cannot guess Thee in the wood, or hear Thee in the wind? Her mother could not speak for tears; she ever mused thus— "The bees will find out other flowers,—but what is left for us?" But her young brother stayed his sobs, and knelt beside her knee, "Thou sweetest sister in the world, hast never a word for me? She passed her hand across his face, she pressed it on his cheek, So tenderly, so tenderly-she needed not to speak. The wreath which lay on shrine that day, at vespers bloomed no more The woman fair who placed it there, had died an hour before. Both perished mute, for lack of root, earth's nourishment to reach ;— O reader, breathe (the ballad saith) some sweetness out of each! A ROMANCE OF THE GANGES. I. SEVEN maidens 'neath the midnight Whose water sweepeth white around The moon and earth are face to face, The wave-voice seems the voice of dreams That wander through her sleep. The river floweth on. II. What bring they 'neath the midnight, They bring that human heart, wherein That droppeth never with the wind, : Oh, calm it, God! Thy calm is broad To cover spirits, too. III. The river floweth on. The maidens lean them over The waters, side by side, And shun each other's deepening eyes, And gaze adown the tide : For each within a little boat A little lamp hath put, And heaped for freight some lily's weight Or scarlet rose half shut. The river floweth on. IV. Of a shell of cocoa carven, Each little boat is made: Each carries a lamp, and carries a flower, And when the boat hath carried the lamp The maidens are sure that love will endure, The river floweth on. V. Why, all the stars are ready The stars, untroubled by the wind, And yet the soul, by instinct sad, Reverts to symbols low— To that small flame, whose very name, Breathed o'er it, shakes it so. The river floweth on VI. Six boats are on the river, The river floweth on. |