Page:Lyrics of Life, Coates, 1909.djvu/58

 38 Where were the men that loved her, as they said?

Ah, bitter "where"! They, all, too rashly fled,

Had entered that ignoble human strife,

Paying a shameful price for paltry life.

She read my soul, I think; and then—she smiled.

Nay, friend,—imagine not my speech grown wild!—

I tell you true: in that appalling place

She smiled—the calm of heaven in her face.

Her service had been long my soul's emprise;

Yet a new, wistful wonder lit her eyes,

And pale—ay, pale as Hades' death-crowned queen—

Across the fatal barriers between,

Her glad look seemed to say:—"At last, I know!

You, who alone have loved me, could not go!

"All help were vain.— Stay!—let me see your face!"

So plead the look; then, with a poignant grace,

Her form bent toward me, her white arms apart,

She gave me the veiled secret of her heart.

Think you we marked the fiery sepulchre

In which we stood,—thence nevermore to stir?

A glory strange enwrapt us.—Then, my friend,

I woke, and saw your face, and knew the end,—