III.

When God on that sin had pity, and did not trample thee straight, With His wild rains beating and drenching thy light found inadequate ;

When He only sent thee the north-winds, a little searching and chill,

To quicken thy flame . . . didst thou kindle and flash to the heights of His will?

"I have sinned," she said,

"Unquickened, unspread,

My fire dropt down; and I wept on my knees!

I only said of His winds of the north, as I shrank from their chill, . .

What delight is in these?"

IV.

When God on that sin had pity, and did not meet it as such, But tempered the wind to thy uses, and softened the world to thy touch;

At least thou wast moved in thy soul, though unable to prove it

afar,

Thou couldst carry thy light like a jewel, not giving it like a star? "I have sinned," she said,

"And not merited

The gift He gives, by the grace He sees!

The mine-cave praiseth the jewel, the hill-side praiseth the star :I am viler than these!"

V.

Then I cried aloud in my passion, . . . unthankful and impotent creature,

To throw up thy scorn unto God, through the rents in thy nature !
If He, the all-giving and loving, is served so, what then
Hast thou done to the weak and the changing, .

of men?

"I have loved," she said,

(Words bowing her head

As the wind bows the wet acacia-trees).

thy fellows

"I saw God sitting above me,—but I . . . I sate among men, And I have loved these."

Again with a lifted voice,

like a trumpet that takes

The low note of a viol that trembles, and triumphing breaks

On the air with it, solemn and clear .

this!

"I have sinned not in

Where I loved, I have loved much and well,—I have loved not

amiss.

Let the living," she said,

66

Enquire of the dead,

In the house of the pale-fronted Images,

And my own true Dead will answer for me, that I have not loved amiss,

In my love for all these.

VII.

"The least touch of their hands in the morning, I keep day and

night:

Their least step on the stair still throbs through me, if ever so

light:

Their least gift, which they left to my childhood, in long ago

years,

Is now turned from a toy to a relic, and gazed at through tears. Dig the snow," she said,

"For my churchyard bed;

Yet I, as I sleep, shall not fear to freeze,

If but one of these love me with heart-warm tears,
As I have loved these!

VIII.

"If I angered any among them, my own life was sore;

If I fell from their presence, I clung to their memory more : Their tender I often felt holy, their bitter I sometimes called

sweet;

And whenever their heart has refused me, I fell down straight at their feet.

I have loved," she said,

"Man is weak, God is dread;

Yet the weakest man dies with his spirit at ease,

Having poured such love-oil on the Saviour's feet,
As I lavished for these."

IX.

Go, I cried; thou hast chosen the Human, and left the Divine ! Then, at least, have the Human shared with thee, their wild-berry

wine?

Have they loved back thy love, and when strangers approached thee with blame,

Have they covered thy fault with their kisses, and loved thee the same?

But she wept and said,

"God, over my head,

Will sweep in the wrath of His judgment seas,

If He deal with me sinning, but only the same,
And not gentler than these!"

LOVED ONCE.

I.

I CLASSED, appraising once,
Earth's lamentable sounds; the welladay,
The jarring yea and nay,
The fall of kisses on unanswering clay,
The sobbed farewell, the welcome mournfuller ;—
But all did leaven the air

With a less bitter leaven of sure despair

Than these words-"I loved ONCE."

II.

And who saith, "I loved ONCE?"

Not angels,-whose clear eyes, love, love, foresee,
Love through eternity,

And, by To Love, do apprehend To Be.

Not God, called Love, His noble crown-name,-casting
A light too broad for blasting!

The great God changing not from everlasting,
Saith never, "I loved ONCE."

III.

Nor ever the "Loved ONCE,"

Dost THOU say, Victim-Christ, misprized friend!
The cross and curse may rend;

But, having loved, Thou lovest to the end!

This is man's saying-man's. Too weak to move
One sphered star above,

Man desecrates the eternal God-word Love
With his No More, and Once.

IV.

How say ye, "We loved once,"
Blasphemers? Is your earth not cold enow,
Mourners, without that snow?

Ah, friends! and would ye wrong each other so?
And could ye say of some, whose love is known,
Whose prayers have met your own,

Whose tears have fallen for you, whose smiles have shone,
Such words, "We loved them ONCE?"

V..

Could ye, "We loved her once,"

Say calm of me, sweet friends, when out of sight?
When hearts of better right

Stand in between me and your happy light?
Or when, as flowers kept too long in the shade,
Ye find my colours fade,

And all that is not love in me, decayed?
Such words-Ye loved me ONCE!

Could ye,

VI.

“We loved her once,"

Say cold of me, when further put away

In earth's sepulchral clay?

When mute the lips which deprecate to-day?—
Not so! not then-least then! When Life is shriven,
And Death's full joy is given,—
Of those who sit and love you up in Heaven,
Say not, "We loved them once."

VII.

Say never, ye loved ONCE!

God is too near above, the grave, below,

And all our moments go

Too quickly past our souls, for saying so.

The mysteries of Life and Death avenge
Affections light of range-

There comes no change to justify that change,
Whatever comes-Loved ONCE!

VIII.

And yet that word of ONCE

Is humanly acceptive. Kings have said,
Shaking a discrowned head,

"We ruled once,"-dotards, "We once taught and led,"-.. Cripples once danced i' the vines,-and bards approved, Were once by scornings, moved:

But love strikes one hour-LOVE.

Those never loved,