Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/219

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horse's feet beside the lake,

Where sweet the unbroken moonbeams lay,

Sent echoes through the night to wake

Each glistening strand, each heath-fringed bay.

The poplar avenue was passed,

And the roofed bridge that spans the stream;

Up the steep street I hurried fast,

Led by thy taper's starlike beam.

I came! I saw thee rise! the blood

Poured flushing to thy languid cheek.

Locked in each other's arms we stood,

In tears, with hearts too full to speak.

Days flew; ah, soon I could discern

A trouble in thine altered air!

Thy hand lay languidly in mine,

Thy cheek was grave, thy speech grew rare.

I blame thee not! This heart, I know,

To be long loved was never framed;

For something in its depths doth glow

Too strange, too restless, too untamed.

And women,—things that live and move

Mined by the fever of the soul,—

They seek to find in those they love

Stern strength, and promise of control.

They ask not kindness, gentle ways;

These they themselves have tried and known:

They ask a soul which never sways

With the blind gusts that shake their own.