free-verse735 lines

The Star's Monument.

by Jean Ingelow

In The Concluding Part Of A Discourse On Fame.

(He thinks.)

If there be memory in the world to come,

If thought recur to SOME THINGS silenced here,

Then shall the deep heart be no longer dumb,

But find expression in that happier sphere;

It shall not be denied their utmost sum

Of love, to speak without or fault or fear,

But utter to the harp with changes sweet

Words that, forbidden still, then heaven were incomplete.

(He speaks.)

Now let us talk about the ancient days,

And things which happened long before our birth:

It is a pity to lament that praise

Should be no shadow in the train of worth.

What is it, Madam, that your heart dismays?

Why murmur at the course of this vast earth?

Think rather of the work than of the praise;

Come, we will talk about the ancient days.

There was a Poet, Madam, once (said he);

I will relate his story to you now.

While through the branches of this apple-tree

Some spots of sunshine flicker on your brow;

While every flower hath on its breast a bee,

And every bird in stirring doth endow

The grass with falling blooms that smoothly glide,

As ships drop down a river with the tide.

For telling of his tale no fitter place

Then this old orchard, sloping to the west;

Through its pink dome of blossom I can trace

Some overlying azure; for the rest,

These flowery branches round us interlace;

The ground is hollowed like a mossy nest:

Who talks of fame while the religious Spring

Offers the incense of her blossoming?

There was a Poet, Madam, once (said he),

Who, while he walked at sundown in a lane,

Took to his heart the hope that destiny

Had singled him this guerdon to obtain,

That by the power of his sweet minstrelsy

Some hearts for truth and goodness he should gain.

And charm some grovellers to uplift their eyes

And suddenly wax conscious of the skies.

"Master, good e'en to ye!" a woodman said,

Who the low hedge was trimming with his shears.

"This hour is fine" - the Poet bowed his head.

"More fine," he thought, "O friend! to me appears

The sunset than to you; finer the spread

Of orange lustre through these azure spheres,

Where little clouds lie still, like flocks of sheep,

Or vessels sailing in God's other deep.

"O finer far! What work so high as mine,

Interpreter betwixt the world and man,

Nature's ungathered pearls to set and shrine,

The mystery she wraps her in to scan;

Her unsyllabic voices to combine,

And serve her with such love as poets can;

With mortal words, her chant of praise to bind,

Then die, and leave the poem to mankind?

"O fair, O fine, O lot to be desired!

Early and late my heart appeals to me,

And says, 'O work, O will - Thou man, be fired

To earn this lot,' - she says, 'I would not be

A worker for mine OWN bread, or one hired

For mine OWN profit. O, I would be free

To work for others; love so earned of them

Should be my wages and my diadem.

"'Then when I died I should not fall,' says she,

'Like dropping flowers that no man noticeth,

But like a great branch of some stately tree

Rent in a tempest, and flung down to death,

Thick with green leafage - so that piteously

Each passer by that ruin shuddereth,

And saith, The gap this branch hath left is wide;

The loss thereof can never be supplied.'"

But, Madam, while the Poet pondered so,

Toward the leafy hedge he turned his eye,

And saw two slender branches that did grow,

And from it rising spring and flourish high:

Their tops were twined together fast, and, lo,

Their shadow crossed the path as he went by -

The shadow of a wild rose and a brier,

And it was shaped in semblance like a lyre.

In sooth, a lyre! and as the soft air played,

Those branches stirred, but did not disunite.

"O emblem meet for me!" the Poet said;

"Ay, I accept and own thee for my right;

The shadowy lyre across my feet is laid,

Distinct though frail, and clear with crimson light,

Fast is it twined to bear the windy strain,

And, supple, it will bend and rise again.

"This lyre is cast across the dusty way,

The common path that common men pursue,

I crave like blessing for my shadowy lay,

Life's trodden paths with beauty to renew,

And cheer the eve of many a toil-stained day.

Light it, old sun, wet it, thou common dew,

That 'neath men's feet its image still may be

While yet it waves above them, living lyre, like thee!"

But even as the Poet spoke, behold

He lifted up his face toward the sky;

The ruddy sun dipt under the gray wold,

His shadowy lyre was gone; and, passing by,

The woodman lifting up his shears, was bold

Their temper on those branches twain to try,

And all their loveliness and leafage sweet

Fell in the pathway, at the Poet's feet.

"Ah! my fair emblem that I chose," quoth he,

"That for myself I coveted but now,

Too soon, methinks, them hast been false to me;

The lyre from pathway fades, the light from brow."

Then straightway turned he from it hastily,

As dream that waking sense will disallow;

And while the highway heavenward paled apace,

He went on westward to his dwelling-place.

He went on steadily, while far and fast

The summer darkness dropped upon the world,

A gentle air among the cloudlets passed

And fanned away their crimson; then it curled

The yellow poppies in the field, and cast

A dimness on the grasses, for it furled

Their daisies, and swept out the purple stain

That eve had left upon the pastoral plain.

He reached his city. Lo! the darkened street

Where he abode was full of gazing crowds;

He heard the muffled tread of many feet;

A multitude stood gazing at the clouds.

"What mark ye there," said he, "and wherefore meet?

Only a passing mist the heaven o'ershrouds;

It breaks, it parts, it drifts like scattered spars -

What lies behind it but the nightly stars?"

Then did the gazing crowd to him aver

They sought a lamp in heaven whose light was hid:

For that in sooth an old Astronomer

Down from his roof had rushed into their mid,

Frighted, and fain with others to confer,

That he had cried, "O sirs!" - and upward bid

Them gaze - "O sirs, a light is quenched afar;

Look up, my masters, we have lost a star!"

The people pointed, and the Poet's eyes

Flew upward, where a gleaming sisterhood

Swam in the dewy heaven. The very skies

Were mutable; for all-amazed he stood

To see that truly not in any wise

He could behold them as of old, nor could

His eyes receive the whole whereof he wot,

But when he told them over, one WAS NOT.

While yet he gazed and pondered reverently,

The fickle folk began to move away.

"It is but one star less for us to see;

And what does one star signify?" quoth they:

"The heavens are full of them." "But, ah!" said he,

"That star was bright while yet she lasted." "Ay!"

They answered: "Praise her, Poet, an' ye will:

Some are now shining that are brighter still."

"Poor star! to be disparag'd so soon

On her withdrawal," thus the Poet sighed;

"That men should miss, and straight deny her noon

Its brightness!" But the people in their pride

Said, "How are we beholden? 'twas no boon

She gave. Her nature 'twas to shine so wide:

She could not choose but shine, nor could we know

Such star had ever dwelt in heaven but so."

The Poet answered sadly, "That is true!"

And then he thought upon unthankfulness;

While some went homeward; and the residue,

Reflecting that the stars are numberless,

Mourned that man's daylight hours should be so few,

So short the shining that his path may bless:

To nearer themes then tuned their willing lips,

And thought no more upon the star's eclipse.

But he, the Poet, could not rest content

Till he had found that old Astronomer;

Therefore at midnight to his house he went

And prayed him be his tale's interpreter.

And yet upon the heaven his eyes he bent,

Hearing the marvel; yet he sought for her

That was a wanting, in the hope her face

Once more might fill its reft abiding-place.

Then said the old Astronomer: "My son.

I sat alone upon my roof to-night;

I saw the stars come forth, and scarcely shun

To fringe the edges of the western light;

I marked those ancient clusters one by one,

The same that blessed our old forefather's sight

For God alone is older - none but He

Can charge the stars with mutability:

"The elders of the night, the steadfast stars,

The old, old stars which God has let us see,

That they might be our soul's auxiliars,

And help us to the truth how young we be -

God's youngest, latest born, as if, some spars

And a little clay being over of them - He

Had made our world and us thereof, yet given,

To humble us, the sight of His great heaven.

"But ah! my son, to-night mine eyes have seen

The death of light, the end of old renown;

A shrinking back of glory that had been,

A dread eclipse before the Eternal's frown.

How soon a little grass will grow between

These eyes and those appointed to look down

Upon a world that was not made on high

Till the last scenes of their long empiry!

"To-night that shining cluster now despoiled

Lay in day's wake a perfect sisterhood;

Sweet was its light to me that long had toiled,

It gleamed and trembled o'er the distant wood,

Blown in a pile the clouds from it recoiled,

Cool twilight up the sky her way made good;

I saw, but not believed - it was so strange -

That one of those same stars had suffered change.

"The darkness gathered, and methought she spread,

Wrapped in a reddish haze that waxed and waned;

But notwithstanding to myself I said -

'The stars are changeless; sure some mote hath stained

Mine eyes, and her fair glory minish'd.'

Of age and failing vision I complained,

And I bought 'some vapor in the heavens doth swim,

That makes her look so large and yet so dim.'

"But I gazed round, and all her lustrous peers

In her red presence showed but wan and white

For like a living coal beheld through tears

She glowed and quivered with a gloomy light:

Methought she trembled, as all sick through fears,

Helpless, appalled, appealing to the night;

Like one who throws his arms up to the sky

And bows down suffering, hopeless of reply.

"At length, as if an everlasting Hand

Had taken hold upon her in her place,

And swiftly, like a golden grain of sand,

Through all the deep infinitudes of space

Was drawing her - God's truth as here I stand -

Backward and inward to itself; her face

Fast lessened, lessened, till it looked no more

Than smallest atom on a boundless shore.

"And she that was so fair, I saw her lie,

The smallest thing in God's great firmament,

Till night was lit the darkest, and on high

Her sisters glittered, though her light was spent;

I strained, to follow her, each aching eye,

So swiftly at her Maker's will she went;

I looked again - I looked - the star was gone,

And nothing marked in heaven where she had shone."

"Gone!" said the Poet, "and about to be

Forgotten: O, how sad a fate is hers!"

"How is it sad, my son?" all reverently

The old man answered; "though she ministers

No longer with her lamp to me and thee,

She has fulfilled her mission. God transfers

Or dims her ray; yet was she blest as bright,

For all her life was spent in giving light."

"Her mission she fulfilled assuredly,"

The Poet cried; "but, O unhappy star!

None praise and few will bear in memory

The name she went by. O, from far, from far

Comes down, methinks, her mournful voice to me,

Full of regrets that men so thankless are."

So said, he told that old Astronomer

All that the gazing crowd had said of her.

And he went on to speak in bitter wise,

As one who seems to tell another's fate,

But feels that nearer meaning underlies,

And points its sadness to his own estate:

"If such be the reward," he said with sighs,

"Envy to earn for love, for goodness hate -

If such be thy reward, hard case is thine!

It had been better for thee not to shine.

"If to reflect a light that is divine

Makes that which doth reflect it better seen,

And if to see is to contemn the shrine,

'Twere surely better it had never been:

It had been better for her NOT TO SHINE,

And for me NOT TO SING. Better, I ween,

For us to yield no more that radiance bright,

For them, to lack the light than scorn the light."

Strange words were those from Poet lips (said he);

And then he paused and sighed, and turned to look

Upon the lady's downcast eyes, and see

How fast the honey-bees in settling shook

Those apple blossoms on her from the tree:

He watched her busy lingers as they took

And slipped the knotted thread, and thought how much

He would have given that hand to hold - to touch.

At length, as suddenly become aware

Of this long pause, she lifted up her face,

And he withdrew his eyes - she looked so fair

And cold, he thought, in her unconscious grace.

"Ah! little dreams she of the restless care,"

He thought, "that makes my heart to throb apace:

Though we this morning part, the knowledge sends

No thrill to her calm pulse - we are but FRIENDS."

Ah! turret clock (he thought), I would thy hand

Were hid behind yon towering maple-trees!

Ah! tell-tale shadow, but one moment stand -

Dark shadow - fast advancing to my knees;

Ah! foolish heart (he thought), that vainly planned

By feigning gladness to arrive at ease;

Ah! painful hour, yet pain to think it ends;

I must remember that we are but friends.

And while the knotted thread moved to and fro,

In sweet regretful tones that lady said:

"It seemeth that the fame you would forego

The Poet whom you tell of coveted;

But I would fain, methinks, his story know.

And was he loved?" said she, "or was he wed?

And had he friends?" "One friend, perhaps," said he,

"But for the rest, I pray you let it be."

Ah! little bird (he thought), most patient bird,

Breasting thy speckled eggs the long day through,

By so much as my reason is preferred

Above thine instinct, I my work would do

Better than thou dost thine. Thou hast not stirred

This hour thy wing. Ah! russet bird, I sue

For a like patience to wear through these hours -

Bird on thy nest among the apple-flowers.

I will not speak - I will not speak to thee,

My star! and soon to be my lost, lost star.

The sweetest, first, that ever shone on me,

So high above me and beyond so far;

I can forego thee, but not bear to see

My love, like rising mist, thy lustre mar:

That were a base return for thy sweet light.

Shine, though I never more-shall see that thou art bright.

Never! 'Tis certain that no hope is - none!

No hope for me, and yet for thee no fear.

The hardest part of my hard task is done;

Thy calm assures me that I am not dear;

Though far and fast the rapid moments run,

Thy bosom heaveth not, thine eyes are clear;

Silent, perhaps a little sad at heart

She is. I am her friend, and I depart.

Silent she had been, but she raised her face;

"And will you end," said she, "this half-told tale?"

"Yes, it were best," he answered her. "The place

Where I left off was where he felt to fail

His courage, Madam, through the fancy base

That they who love, endure, or work, may rail

And cease - if all their love, the works they wrought,

And their endurance, men have set at nought."

"It had been better for me NOT to sing,"

My Poet said, "and for her NOT to shine;"

But him the old man answered, sorrowing,

"My son, did God who made her, the Divine

Lighter of suns, when down to yon bright ring

He cast her, like some gleaming almandine,

And set her in her place, begirt with rays,

Say unto her 'Give light,' or say 'Earn praise?'"

The Poet said, "He made her to give light."

"My son," the old man answered, "Blest are such;

A blessed lot is theirs; but if each night

Mankind had praised her radiance, inasmuch

As praise had never made it wax more bright,

And cannot now rekindle with its touch

Her lost effulgence, it is nought. I wot

That praise was not her blessing nor her lot."

"Ay," said the Poet, "I my words abjure,

And I repent me that I uttered them;

But by her light and by its forfeiture

She shall not pass without her requiem.

Though my name perish, yet shall hers endure;

Though I should be forgotten, she, lost gem,

Shall be remembered; though she sought not fame,

It shall be busy with her beauteous name.

"For I will raise in her bright memory,

Lost now on earth, a lasting monument,

And graven on it shall recorded be

That all her rays to light mankind were spent;

And I will sing albeit none heedeth me,

On her exemplar being still intent:

While in men's sight shall stand the record thus -

'So long as she did last she lighted us.'"

So said, he raised, according to his vow,

On the green grass where oft his townsfolk met,

Under the shadow of a leafy bough

That leaned toward a singing rivulet,

One pure white stone, whereon, like crown on brow,

The image of the vanished star was set;

And this was graven on the pure white stone

In golden letters - "WHILE SHE LIVED SHE SHONE."

Madam, I cannot give this story well -

My heart is beating to another chime;

My voice must needs a different cadence swell;

It is yon singing bird, which all the time

Wooeth his nested mate, that doth dispel

My thoughts. What, deem you, could a lover's rhyme

The sweetness of that passionate lay excel?

O soft, O low her voice - "I cannot tell."

(He thinks.)

The old man - ay, he spoke, he was not hard;

"She was his joy," he said, "his comforter,

But he would trust me. I was not debarred

Whate'er my heart approved to say to her."

Approved! O torn and tempted and ill-starred

And breaking heart, approve not nor demur;

It is the serpent that beguileth thee

With "God doth know" beneath this apple-tree.

Yea, God DOTH know, and only God doth know.

Have pity, God, my spirit groans to Thee!

I bear Thy curse primeval, and I go;

But heavier than on Adam falls on me

My tillage of the wilderness; for lo,

I leave behind the woman, and I see

As 'twere the gates of Eden closing o'er

To hide her from my sight for evermore.

(He speaks.)

I am a fool, with sudden start he cried,

To let the song-bird work me such unrest:

If I break off again, I pray you chide,

For morning neeteth, with my tale at best

Half told. That white stone, Madam, gleamed beside

The little rivulet, and all men pressed

To read the lost one's story traced thereon,

The golden legend - "While she lived she shone."

And, Madam, when the Poet heard them read,

And children spell the letters softly through,

It may be that he felt at heart some need,

Some craving to be thus remembered too;

It may be that he wondered if indeed

He must die wholly when he passed from view;

It may be, wished when death his eyes made dim,

That some kind hand would raise such stone for him.

But shortly, as there comes to most of us,

There came to him the need to quit his home:

To tell you why were simply hazardous.

What said I, Madam? - men were made to roam

My meaning is. It hath been always thus:

They are athirst for mountains and sea-foam;

Heirs of this world, what wonder if perchance

They long to see their grand inheritance?

He left his city, and went forth to teach

Mankind, his peers, the hidden harmony

That underlies God's discords, and to reach

And touch the master-string that like a sigh

Thrills in their souls, as if it would beseech

Some hand to sound it, and to satisfy

Its yearning for expression: but no word

Till poet touch it hath to make its music heard.

(He thinks.)

I know that God is good, though evil dwells

Among us, and doth all things holiest share;

That there is joy in heaven, while yet our knells

Sound for the souls which He has summoned there:

That painful love unsatisfied hath spells

Earned by its smart to soothe its fellows care:

But yet this atom cannot in the whole

Forget itself - it aches a separate soul.

(He speaks.)

But, Madam, to my Poet I return.

With his sweet cadences of woven words

He made their rude untutored hearts to burn

And melt like gold refined. No brooding birds

Sing better of the love that doth sojourn

Hid in the nest of home, which softly girds

The beating heart of life; and, strait though it be,

Is straitness better than wide liberty.

He taught them, and they learned, but not the less

Remained unconscious whence that lore they drew,

But dreamed that of their native nobleness

Some lofty thoughts, that he had planted, grew;

His glorious maxims in a lowly dress

Like seed sown broadcast sprung in all men's view.

The sower, passing onward, was not known,

And all men reaped the harvest as their own.

It may be, Madam, that those ballads sweet,

Whose rhythmic words we sang but yesterday,

Which time and changes make not obsolete,

But (as a river blossoms bears away

That on it drop) take with them while they fleet -

It may be his they are, from him bear sway:

But who can tell, since work surviveth fame? -

The rhyme is left, but lost the Poet's name.

He worked, and bravely he fulfilled his trust -

So long he wandered sowing worthy seed,

Watering of wayside buds that were adust,

And touching for the common ear his reed -

So long to wear away the cankering rust

That dulls the gold of life - so long to plead

With sweetest music for all souls oppressed,

That he was old ere he had thought of rest.

Old and gray-headed, leaning on a staff,

To that great city of his birth he came,

And at its gates he paused with wondering laugh

To think how changed were all his thoughts of fame

Since first he carved the golden epitaph

To keep in memory a worthy name,

And thought forgetfulness had been its doom

But for a few bright letters on a tomb.

The old Astronomer had long since died;

The friends of youth were gone and far dispersed,

Strange were the domes that rose on every side;

Strange fountains on his wondering vision burst;

The men of yesterday their business plied;

No face was left that he had known at first;

And in the city gardens, lo, he sees

The saplings that he set are stately trees.

Upon the grass beneath their welcome shade,

Behold! he marks the fair white monument,

And on its face the golden words displayed,

For sixty years their lustre have not spent;

He sitteth by it and is not afraid,

But in its shadow he is well content;

And envies not, though bright their gleamings are,

The golden letters of the vanished star.

He gazeth up; exceeding bright appears

That golden legend to his aged eyes,

For they are dazzled till they fill with tears,

And his lost Youth doth like a vision rise;

She saith to him, "In all these toilsome years,

What hast thou won by work or enterprise?

What hast thou won to make amends to thee,

As thou didst swear to do, for loss of me?

"O man! O white-haired man!" the vision said

"Since we two sat beside this monument

Life's clearest hues are all evanish'd;

The golden wealth thou hadst of me is spent;

The wind hath swept thy flowers, their leaves are shed

The music is played out that with thee went."

"Peace, peace!" he cried, "I lost thee, but, in truth,

There are worse losses than the loss of youth."

He said not what those losses were - but I -

But I must leave them, for the time draws near.

Some lose not ONLY joy, but memory

Of how it felt: not love that was so dear

Lose only, but the steadfast certainty

That once they had it; doubt comes on, then fear,

And after that despondency. I wis

The Poet must have meant such loss as this.

But while he sat and pondered on his youth,

He said, "It did one deed that doth remain,

For it preserved the memory and the truth

Of her that now doth neither set nor wane,

But shine in all men's thought; nor sink forsooth,

And be forgotten like the summer rain.

O, it is good that man should not forget

Or benefits foregone or brightness set!"

He spoke and said, "My lot contented: me;

I am right glad for this her worthy fame;

That which was good and great I fain would see

Drawn with a halo round what rests - its name."

This while the Poet said, behold there came

A workman with his tools anear the tree,

And when he read the words he paused awhile

And pondered on them with a wondering smile.

And then he said, "I pray you, Sir, what mean

The golden letters of this monument?"

In wonder quoth the Poet, "Hast thou been

A dweller near at hand, and their intent

Hast neither heard by voice of fame, nor seen

The marble earlier?" "Ay," said he, and leant

Upon his spade to hear the tale, then sigh,

And say it was a marvel, and pass by.

Then said the Poet, "This is strange to me."

But as he mused, with trouble in his mind,

A band of maids approached him leisurely,

Like vessels sailing with a favoring wind;

And of their rosy lips requested he,

As one that for a doubt would solving find,

The tale, if tale there were, of that white stone,

And those fair letters - "While she lived she shone."

Then like a fleet that floats becalmed they stay.

"O, Sir," saith one, "this monument is old;

But we have heard our virtuous mothers say

That by their mothers thus the tale was told:

A Poet made it; journeying then away,

He left us; and though some the meaning hold

For other than the ancient one, yet we

Receive this legend for a certainty: -

"There was a lily once, most purely white,

Beneath the shadow of these boughs it grew;

Its starry blossom it unclosed by night,

And a young Poet loved its shape and hue.

He watched it nightly, 'twas so fair a sight,

Until a stormy wind arose and blew,

And when he came once more his flower to greet

Its fallen petals drifted to his feet.

"And for his beautiful white lily's sake,

That she might be remembered where her scent

Had been right sweet, he said that he would make

In her dear memory a monument:

For she was purer than a driven flake

Of snow, and in her grace most excellent;

The loveliest life that death did ever mar,

As beautiful to gaze on as a star."

"I thank you, maid," the Poet answered her.

"And I am glad that I have heard your tale."

With that they passed; and as an inlander,

Having heard breakers raging in a gale,

And falling down in thunder, will aver

That still, when far away in grassy vale,

He seems to hear those seething waters bound,

So in his ears the maiden's voice did sound.

He leaned his face upon his hand, and thought,

And thought, until a youth came by that way;

And once again of him the Poet sought

The story of the star. But, well-a-day!

He said, "The meaning with much doubt is fraught,

The sense thereof can no man surely say;

For still tradition sways the common ear,

That of a truth a star DID DISAPPEAR.

"But they who look beneath the outer shell

That wraps the 'kernel of the people's lore,'

Hold THAT for superstition; and they tell

That seven lovely sisters dwelt of yore

In this old city, where it so befell

That one a Poet loved; that, furthermore,

As stars above us she was pure and good,

And fairest of that beauteous sisterhood.

"So beautiful they were, those virgins seven,

That all men called them clustered stars in song,

Forgetful that the stars abide in heaven:

But woman bideth not beneath it long;

For O, alas! alas! one fated even

When stars their azure deeps began to throng,

That virgin's eyes of Poet loved waxed dim,

And all their lustrous shining waned to him.

"In summer dusk she drooped her head and sighed

Until what time the evening star went down,

And all the other stars did shining bide

Clear in the lustre of their old renown.

And then - the virgin laid her down and died:

Forgot her youth, forgot her beauty's crown,

Forgot the sisters whom she loved before,

And broke her Poet's heart for evermore."

"A mournful tale, in sooth," the lady saith:

"But did he truly grieve for evermore?"

"It may be you forget," he answereth,

"That this is but a fable at the core

O' the other fable." "Though it be but breath,"

She asketh, "was it true?" - then he, "This lore,

Since it is fable, either way may go;

Then, if it please you, think it might be so."

"Nay, but," she saith, "if I had told your tale,

The virgin should have lived his home to bless,

Or, must she die, I would have made to fail

His useless love." "I tell you not the less,"

He sighs, "because it was of no avail:

His heart the Poet would not dispossess

Thereof. But let us leave the fable now.

My Poet heard it with an aching brow."

And he made answer thus: "I thank thee, youth;

Strange is thy story to these aged ears,

But I bethink me thou hast told a truth

Under the guise of fable. If my tears,

Thou lost belov'd star, lost now, forsooth,

Indeed could bring thee back among thy peers,

So new thou should'st be deemed as newly seen,

For men forget that thou hast ever been.

"There was a morning when I longed for fame,

There was a noontide when I passed it by,

There is an evening when I think not shame

Its substance and its being to deny;

For if men bear in mind great deeds, the name

Of him that wrought them shall they leave to die;

Or if his name they shall have deathless writ,

They change the deeds that first ennobled it.

"O golden letters of this monument!

O words to celebrate a loved renown

Lost now or wrested! and to fancies lent,

Or on a fabled forehead set for crown,

For my departed star, I am content,

Though legends dim and years her memory drown:

For nought were fame to her, compared and set

By this great truth which ye make lustrous yet."

"Adieu!" the Poet said, "my vanished star,

Thy duty and thy happiness were one.

Work is heaven's best; its fame is sublunar:

The fame thou dost not need - the work is done.

For thee I am content that these things are;

More than content were I, my race being run,

Might it be true of me, though none thereon

Should muse regretful - 'While he lived he shone.'"

So said, the Poet rose and went his way,

And that same lot he proved whereof he spake.

Madam, my story is told out; the day

Draws out her shadows, time doth overtake

The morning. That which endeth call a lay,

Sung after pause - a motto in the break

Between two chapters of a tale not new,

Nor joyful - but a common tale. Adieu!

And that same God who made your face so fair,

And gave your woman's heart its tenderness,

So shield the blessing He implanted there,

That it may never turn to your distress,

And never cost you trouble or despair,

Nor granted leave the granter comfortless;

But like a river blest where'er it flows,

Be still receiving while it still bestows.

Adieu, he said, and paused, while she sat mute

In the soft shadow of the apple-tree;

The skylark's song rang like a joyous flute,

The brook went prattling past her restlessly:

She let their tongues be her tongue's substitute;

It was the wind that sighed, it was not she:

And what the lark, the brook, the wind, had said,

We cannot tell, for none interpreted.

Their counsels might be hard to reconcile,

They might not suit the moment or the spot.

She rose, and laid her work aside the while

Down in the sunshine of that grassy plot;

She looked upon him with an almost smile,

And held to him a hand that faltered not.

One moment - bird and brook went warbling on,

And the wind sighed again - and he was gone.

So quietly, as if she heard no more

Or skylark in the azure overhead,

Or water slipping past the cressy shore,

Or wind that rose in sighs, and sighing fled -

So quietly, until the alders hoar

Took him beneath them; till the downward spread

Of planes engulfed him in their leafy seas -

She stood beneath her rose-flushed apple-trees.

And then she stooped toward the mossy grass,

And gathered up her work and went her way;

Straight to that ancient turret she did pass,

And startle back some fawns that were at play.

She did not sigh, she never said "Alas!"

Although he was her friend: but still that day,

Where elm and hornbeam spread a towering dome,

She crossed the dells to her ancestral home.

And did she love him? - what if she did not?

Then home was still the home of happiest years

Nor thought was exiled to partake his lot,

Nor heart lost courage through forboding fears;

Nor echo did against her secret plot,

Nor music her betray to painful tears;

Nor life become a dream, and sunshine dim,

And riches poverty, because of him.

But did she love him? - what and if she did?

Love cannot cool the burning Austral sand,

Nor show the secret waters that lie hid

In arid valleys of that desert land.

Love has no spells can scorching winds forbid,

Or bring the help which tarries near to hand,

Or spread a cloud for curtaining faded eyes

That gaze up dying into alien skies.