Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/163

Rh

thine image through my tears to-night,

And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. How

Refer the cause?—Beloved, is it thou

Or I? Who makes me sad? The acolyte

Amid the chanted joy and thankful rite,

May so fall flat, with pale insensate brow,

On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice and vow

Perplexed, uncertain, since thou'rt out of sight,

As he, in his swooning ears, the choir's amen!

Beloved, dost thou love? or did I see all

The glory as I dreamed, and fainted when

Too vehement light dilated my ideal

For my soul's eyes? Will that light come again,

As now these tears come. . . falling hot and real?

comest! all is said without a word.

I sit beneath thy looks, as children do

In the noon-sun, with souls that tremble through

Their happy eyelids from an unaverred

Yet prodigal inward joy. Behold, I erred

In that last doubt! and yet I cannot rue

The sin most, but the occasion. . . that we two

Should for a moment stand unministered

By a mutual presence. Ah, keep near and close,

Thou dovelike help! and, when my fears would rise,

With thy broad heart serenely interpose!

Brood down with thy divine sufficiencies

These thoughts which tremble when bereft of those,

Like callow birds left desert to the skies.