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Read Ebook: The Deluge and Other Poems by Presland John
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Ebook has 337 lines and 16579 words, and 7 pages
The Deluge
Sonnets-- To J. F. W. To Andrew Chatto November To a Robin in December A January Morning February To April--I To April--II To Daniel Manin
To the Leaders of both Parties Consolation Tapestry Wisdom and Youth A Villa on the Bay of Naples A Song The Ballad of a Sea-Nymph Chrysanthemums A Courtly Madrigal In Arcadia A Ballad of King Richard In the Valley of the Shadow
THE DELUGE
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
SCENE I
THE WIFE
Love, it is dark among your roses, The face of the moon is turned away, The nightingale is silent and lonely; Lean from your window a little way!--
Lean but a little way towards me, Out of the window where jasmines twine, Open the lattice, softly, slowly, Till the light of your eyes shall gladden mine.
Love, it is dark among your roses; And how, since the nightingales are fled, Can I tell your heart how my heart is lowly, To touch the ground where your sandals tread?
This is your garden; these your flowers; These stars have seen you; these dews have known; And now your eyes and your smile you give me-- Give me your love, and be all mine own!
THE MOTHER
Sing that again, the music soothes my ear.
THE WIFE
My husband made it for me ere we wed, And sang it in my garden; I arose And leaned down to him, and my fingers gave To all his kisses. Ah! those days were sweet.
THE MOTHER
Not sweet now?
THE WIFE
I am happy in his love And thank God for it, nay, propitiate With vows and offering; I fear a wrath Called down on too great happiness; I fear-- I know not what--Oh, I possess a gift So rare and precious, that, like men who go Laden with rubies, I am grown suspect Of all the earth and heaven, feel the stars Peer covetously on me. Every hour That he is from my side a cloud of woe Settles upon me like a swarm of bees. Ah, is it possible that we can sin In happiness, against a jealous God?
THE MOTHER
Nay, nay, these foolish thoughts! your wits are strayed With too much brooding: let me bind afresh The knot of scarlet lilies in your hair; They fade already, for the sun is high Towards the noon: Ah, child, what waits for you But love, and yet more love, and happiness, And children of delight, and in old age Respect of all the peoples, and at last Death in his arms and burial in peace? Still do you tremble, what is it you fear?
THE WIFE
Can you not feel a something in the air, A warning, or a presence, or the weight Of some unguessed-at horror, that, like dust Impalpable and deadly, clings and kills? There is some terror--'tis my heart that speaks And warns me--ah! would God indeed, your son, had another father Than that celestial being. This it is That puts eternal sadness on his brow, And shade within his eyes I cannot lift, Even with kisses; 'tis the angel nature That makes him sit spell-woven in a trance, Chin in his hand, and eyes on vacancy, And lips all bare of love, the while his soul Struggles against the bonds of finity.
THE MOTHER
Ah, how you love him!
THE WIFE
More because of it, This kingdom infinite I cannot know Though loving him.
THE MOTHER
Alas! so did I love.
THE WIFE
Tell me of love.
THE MOTHER
Belov?d, what should I tell That his lips have not taught you?
THE WIFE
Tell of yours; So that I may compare your flowers with mine, Your doubts and times of joy, and how arose The sudden and sweet passion in your heart; Did the world burst forth, like a flower from bud, All suddenly in beauty, when you met?
THE MOTHER
Ah, how your words have wakened memory, And bitter-sweet, like love itself, it is.
THE WIFE
The first time that you met?
THE MOTHER
Ah, that first time! It was a night of gods, a night of love. The earth was still beneath a summer sky So thickly sown with stars, that it appeared A vase of ebon in a silver shroud; No breath there stirred, the hot air seemed to hang In heavy folds, like silken tapestry, Clinging, caressing; all the birds were still, No nightingale with her ecstatic pain Transfixed the silence; earth was dead asleep, Sunk in a scented languor; every flower Steamed all its odour forth, as it would pour Its soul before the mystery of love.
And I into the night had stolen forth, Oppressed, with pain or joy, I knew not which, Knew only that the blood throughout my veins Did run like liquid fire, head to foot I tingled with sensation, all my hair Stirred, as with separate life within itself; And as I plucked the flowers and wove them in, Purple and waxen, languorously sweet, They seemed anticipation of a touch Should make each thread of hair become a bird, Fluttering with outstretched wings. From off my breast I flung my garment back; the soft air wooed Like sleepy lips ere love is yet awake. Then, as I lingered in the dusky depths, All flower-shadowed, blacker than the night, Blacker than shadows cast by palace walls Upon a moonlit night, there, in that web Of close-knit darkness, suddenly there came The wonder unto me, the god, my love-- Within mine ears there was a silver silence, And in my heart a golden burst of song, The darkness burned around me, with a light Born from the other worlds, and there he stood, Radiant, godlike, purple were his wings And splashed with fire, purply-black his hair And crowned with stars for flowers; in his eyes My soul sank into passion and was drowned.
CHORUS
Oh, what a pair of birds, Hidden among the leaves! He a god and she a maid, Deathless lips on mortal laid;
There a son of God And child of mortal seed Met and kissed as love with love; Oh the leaves were thick above, No stars saw the deed.
No stars, but the eye of God? Ah, perchance He saw How a god to mortal prayed And the fatal compact made 'Gainst eternal law.
Veiled and still the night. So, a fount of tears Springs at first unseen, unguessed, Till at last the flood confessed Gushes down the years.
Son of a son of God And the daughter of men too frail! Union of the nature's twain? Only sorrow and want and pain, Striving without avail;
Desire for wings of a god Tied to the will of a man; Memory of a boundless space, With the threescore human span
Hung like a bridge, in the gulf Of God's eternity. Oh a mind to know and a heart to crave Beyond the horizon of the grave To the bounds of infinity!
Yet ever Fate compels This infinite desire To match with cramped and finite brain; And all of heaven earth may gain Is smoke, where should be fire.
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