Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/452

VARIOUS POEMS So let thy wild heart ripple on,

Brave girl, through vale and city!

Spare, of its listless moments, one

To this, thy poet's ditty;

Nor long forbear, when all is done,

Thine own sweet self to pity.

The priestess of the Sestian tower,

Whose knight the sea swam over,

Among her votaries' gifts no flower

Of heart's-ease could discover:

She died, but in no evil hour,

Who, dying, clasped her lover.

The rose-tree has its perfect life

When the full rose is blown;

Some height of womanhood the wife

Beyond thy dream has known;

Set not thy head and heart at strife

To keep thee from thine own.

Hypatia! thine essence rare

The rarer joy should merit:

Possess thee of that common share

Which lesser souls inherit:

All gods to thee their garlands bear,—

Take one from Love and wear it!

SISTER BEATRICE , A. D. 1518

tale,—a strange and ancient thing

Long since on vellum writ in gules and or:

And why should Chance to me this trover bring

From the grim dust-heap of forgotten lore, 422