* * * * *
O God of Gods, make short my days
Of blind approach to her and Thee;
Life-long upon Thy rugged ways
Her heart has danced: she calls to me.
Hast Thou forgotten me alone,
O Watcher where the wild beast lies?--
Mould to Thy will this other stone
--A stone, yet precious in her eyes.
_LUX IN TENEBRIS_
Spirit of smiles and tears, you came to me in the night,
The golden moon aglow in your hair, and the spear-driven light
Of an army of stars in your eyes, weary with truant sleep.
O little skilled in self, who thought you came to weep!
Out of the darkness, light; flame in the virgin dew!
Love came unto her own, and knew him not, who knew.
O understood! O known! O apprehended bliss!
O self unskilled in self! O taught of my one kiss!
_MATER INVIOLATA_
A maiden's love most nuptial is,
Innocent of his nuptial kiss;
And only after marriage call
Her lips, her passion, virginal!
For when she dreams, who is beloved,
The ancient miracle stands proved--
Virginity's much Motherhood!
For O, the unborn babes she keeps,
The unthought glory, lips unwooed!--
And O, the quickening of her sleeps
Whose dreams, dreamed over, do repeat
The echoes of Love's falling feet!
For his, her young inviolate mouth
Longs with the longing of long drouth:
And, lacking substance for such feast,
She clasps a dream-baby to breast,
And kisses, where her head has place,
The dream-lips of her love's dream-face!
On the decked bridal bed of Night
She knows the Moon shows maiden light--
The Sun's kiss urged in marriage-rite!
So, when her very night shall come,
Virginal, in her virgin home
When stars show unfamiliar faces,
Laughing for love in their high places--
When her essential lips are dumb
In a thronged panic of embraces--
Her maiden heart, her spousal breast,
Shall throb, surrendered and possessed,
Throb, passion-sweet and ungainsaid--
"Now at the last am I a Maid!"
_SONG-BURDEN_
I do confess I have no art
To tell the tale of my own heart.
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