Extremest pain; or that the clear-eyed | Hung round with paintings of the sea, Spirit, Being blunted in the Present, grew at length Prophetical and prescient of whate'er The Future had in store or that which and one That painted vessel, as with inner life, Began to heave upon that painted sea; An earthquake, my loud heart-beats, made the ground Reel under us, and all at once, soul, life And breath and motion, past and flow'd away To those unreal billows: round and round A whirlwind caught and bore us; mighty gyres Rapid and vast, of hissing spray winddriven Far thro' the dizzy dark. Aloud she shriek'd; My heart was cloven with pain; I wound my arms About her we whirl'd giddily; the wind Sung; but I claspt her without fear her weight Within the summer-house of which I Shrank in my grasp, and over my dim spake, eyes, down hung : And parted lips which drank her breath, | I, too, was borne along and felt the blast Beat on my heated eyelids all at once The front rank made a sudden halt; the The jaws of Death: I, groaning, from me flung Her empty phantom all the sway and whirl Of the storm dropt to windless calm, and I Down welter'd thro' the dark ever and The hollow tolling of the bell, and all The vision of the bier. As heretofore I walk'd behind with one who veil'd his brow. Methought by slow degrees the sullen bell Toll'd quicker, and the breakers on the shore Sloped into louder surf: those that went with me, And those that held the bier before my face, Moved with one spirit round about the bay, Trod swifter steps; and while I walk'd with these In marvel at that gradual change, I thought Four bells instead of one began to ring, Four merry bells, four merry marriage bells, In clanging cadence jangling peal on peal A long loud clash of rapid marriage bells. Then those who led the van, and those in rear, Rush'd into dance, and like wild Bacchanals Fled onward to the steeple in the woods: bells Lapsed into frightful stillness; the surge fell From thunder into whispers; those six maids With shrieks and ringing laughter on the sand Threw down the bier; the woods upon the hill Waved with a sudden gust that sweeping down Took the edges of the pall, and blew it far Shrank in me, like a snow-flake in the hand, Waiting to see the settled countenance Of her I lov'd, adorn'd with fading flowers. But she from out her death-like chrysalis, She from her bier, as into fresher life, My sister, and my cousin, and my love, Leapt lightly clad in bridal white - her Wind-footed to the steeple in the woods, Till they were swallow'd in the leafy bowers, And I stood sole beside the vacant bier. There, there, my latest vision - then the event! more: The dead returns to me; and I go down To kiss the dead." The fancy stirr'd him so He rose and went, and entering the dim vault, And, making there a sudden light, beheld All round about him that which all will be. The light was but a flash, and went again. Then at the far end of the vault he saw His lady with the moonlight on her face; Her breast as in a shadow-prison, bars Of black and bands of silver, which the moon Struck from an open grating overhead High in the wall, and all the rest of her Drown'd in the gloom and horror of the vault. "It was my wish," he said, "to pass, to sleep, To rest, to be with her till the great day Peal'd on us with that music which rights all, And raised us hand in hand." And kneeling there Down in the dreadful dust that once was man, Dust, as he said, that once was loving | Send! bid him come;" but Lionel was Sitting awhile to rest, but evermore There the good mother's kindly min istering, With half a night's appliances, recall'd Mer fluttering life: she raised an eye that ask'd "Where?" till the things familiar to her youth But all their house was old and loved them both, And all the house had known the loves Had died almost to serve them any way; Had made a silent answer: then she Heir of his face and land, to Lionel. It makes me angry yet to speak of it, And in a loft, with none to wait on him, A dismal hostel in a dismal land, A flat malarian world of reed and rush! But there from fever and my care of him Sprang up a friendship that may help us yet. For while we roam'd along the dreary coast, And waited for her message, piece by piece I learnt the drearier story of his life; And, tho' he loved and honor'd Lionel, Found that the sudden wail his lady made Dwelt in his fancy did he know her worth, Her beauty even? should he not be taught, Ev'n by the price that others set upon it, The value of that jewel he had to guard? Suddenly came her notice, and we past, I with our lover, to his native bay. This love is of the brain, the mind, the soul: That makes the sequel pure; tho' some of us Beginning at the sequel know no more. Not such am I and yet I say, the bird That will not hear my call, however sweet, But if my neighbor whistle answers him What matter? there are others in the wood. Yet when I saw her (and I thought him crazed, Tho' not with such a craziness as needs A cell and keeper), those dark eyes of hers Oh! such dark eyes! and not her eyes alone, But all from these to where she touch'd on earth For such a craziness as Julian's look'd No less than one divine apology. So sweetly and so modestly she came |