free-verse230 lines

Tristram of Lyonesse - VII - The Wife's Vigil

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

But all that year in Brittany forlorn,

More sick at heart with wrath than fear of scorn

And less in love with love than grief, and less

With grief than pride of spirit and bitterness,

Till all the sweet life of her blood was changed

And all her soul from all her past estranged

And all her will with all itself at strife

And all her mind at war with all her life,

Dwelt the white-handed Iseult, maid and wife,

A mourner that for mourning robes had on

Anger and doubt and hate of things foregone.

For that sweet spirit of old which made her sweet

Was parched with blasts of thought as flowers with heat

And withered as with wind of evil will;

Though slower than frosts or fires consume or kill

That bleak black wind vexed all her spirit still.

As ripples reddening in the roughening breath

Of the eager east when dawn does night to death,

So rose and stirred and kindled in her thought

Fierce barren fluctuant fires that lit not aught,

But scorched her soul with yearning keen as hate

And dreams that left her wrath disconsolate.

When change came first on that first heaven where all

Life's hours were flowers that dawn's light hand let fall,

The sun that smote her dewy cloud of days

Wrought from its showery folds his rainbow's rays,

For love the red, for hope the gentle green,

But yellow jealousy glared pale between.

Ere yet the sky grew heavier, and her head

Bent flowerwise, chill with change and fancies fled,

She saw but love arch all her heaven across with red,

A burning bloom that seemed to breathe and beat

And waver only as flame with rapturous heat

Wavers; and all the world therewith smelt sweet,

As incense kindling from the rose-red flame:

And when that full flush waned, and love became

Scarce fainter, though his fading horoscope

From certitude of sight receded, hope

Held yet her April-coloured light aloft

As though to lure back love, a lamp sublime and soft.

But soon that light paled as a leaf grows pale

And fluttered leaf-like in the gathering gale

And melted even as dew-flakes, whose brief sheen

The sun that gave despoils of glittering green;

Till harder shone 'twixt hope and love grown cold

A sallow light like withering autumn's gold,

The pale strong flame of jealous thought, that glows

More deep than hope's green bloom or love's enkindled rose:

As though the sunflower's faint fierce disk absorbed

The spirit and heart of starrier flowers disorbed.

That same full hour of twilight's doors unbarred

To let bright night behold in Joyous Gard

The glad grave eyes of lovers far away

Watch with sweet thoughts of death the death of day

Saw lonelier by the narrower opening sea

Sit fixed at watch Iseult of Brittany.

As darkness from deep valleys void and bleak

Climbs till it clothe with night the sunniest peak

Where only of all a mystic mountain-land

Day seems to cling yet with a trembling hand

And yielding heart reluctant to recede,

So, till her soul was clothed with night indeed,

Rose the slow cloud of envious will within

And hardening hate that held itself no sin,

Veiled heads of vision, eyes of evil gleam,

Dim thought on thought, and darkling dream on dream.

Far off she saw in spirit, and seeing abhorred,

The likeness wrought on darkness of her lord

Shine, and the imperial semblance at his side

Whose shadow from her seat cast down the bride,

Whose power and ghostly presence thrust her forth:

Beside that unknown other sea far north

She saw them, clearer than in present sight

Rose on her eyes the starry shadow of night;

And on her heart that heaved with gathering fate

Rose red with storm the starless shadow of hate;

And eyes and heart made one saw surge and swell

The fires of sunset like the fires of hell.

As though God's wrath would burn up sin with shame,

The incensed red gold of deepening heaven grew flame:

The sweet green spaces of the soft low sky

Faded, as fields that withering wind leaves dry:

The sea's was like a doomsman's blasting breath

From lips afoam with ravenous lust of death.

A night like desolation, sombre-starred,

Above the great walled girth of Joyous Gard

Spread forth its wide sad strength of shadow and gloom

Wherein those twain were compassed round with doom:

Hell from beneath called on them, and she heard

Reverberate judgment in the wild wind's word

Cry, till the sole sound of their names that rang

Clove all the sea-mist with a clarion's clang,

And clouds to clouds and flames to clustering flames

Beat back the dark noise of the direful names.

Fear and strong exultation caught her breath,

And triumph like the bitterness of death,

And rapture like the rage of hate allayed

With ruin and ravin that its might hath made;

And her heart swelled and strained itself to hear

What may be heard of no man's hungering ear,

And as a soil that cleaves in twain for drouth

Thirsted for judgment given of God's own mouth

Against them, till the strength of dark desire

Was in her as a flame of hell's own fire.

Nor seemed the wrath which held her spirit in stress

Aught else or worse than passionate holiness,

Nor the ardent hate which called on judgment's rod

More hateful than the righteousness of God.

'How long, till thou do justice, and my wrong

Stand expiate? O long-suffering judge, how long?

Shalt thou not put him in mine hand one day

Whom I so loved, to spare not but to slay?

Shalt thou not cast her down for me to tread,

Me, on the pale pride of her humbled head?

Do I not well, being angry? doth not hell

Require them? yea, thou knowest that I do well.

Is not thy seal there set of bloodred light

For witness on the brows of day and night?

Who shall unseal it? what shall melt away

Thy signet from the doors of night and day?

No man, nor strength of any spirit above,

Nor prayer, nor ardours of adulterous love.

Thou art God, the strong lord over body and soul:

Hast thou not in the terrors of thy scroll

All names of all men written as with fire?

Thine only breath bids time and space respire:

And are not all things evil in them done

More clear in thine eyes than in ours the sun?

Hast thou not sight stretched wide enough to see

These that offend it, these at once and me?

Is thine arm shortened or thine hand struck down

As palsied? have thy brows not strength to frown?

Are thine eyes blind with film of withering age?

Burns not thine heart with righteousness of rage

Yet, and the royal rancour toward thy foes

Retributive of ruin? Time should close,

Thou said'st, and earth fade as a leaf grows grey,

Ere one word said of thine should pass away.

Was this then not thy word, thou God most high,

That sin shall surely bring forth death and die,

Seeing how these twain live and have joy of life,

His harlot and the man that made me wife?

For is it I, perchance, I that have sinned?

Me, peradventure, should thy wasting wind

Smite, and thy sun blast, and thy storms devour

Me with keen fangs of lightning? should thy power

Put forth on me the weight of its awakening hour?

Shall I that bear this burden bear that weight

Of judgment? is my sin against thee great,

If all my heart against them burn with all its hate?

Thine, and not mine, should hate be? nay, but me

They have spoiled and scoffed at, who can touch not thee.

Me, me, the fullness of their joy drains dry,

Their fruitfulness makes barren: thou, not I,

Lord, is it, whom their wrongdoing clothes with shame,

That all who speak shoot tongues out at thy name

As all who hear mock mine? Make me thy sword

At least, if even thou too be wronged, O Lord,

At all of these that wrong me: make mine hand

As lightning, or my tongue a fiery brand,

To burn or smite them with thy wrath: behold,

I have nought on earth save thee for hope or hold,

Fail me not thou: I have nought but this to crave,

Make me thy mean to give them to the grave,

Thy sign that all men seeing may speak thee just,

Thy word which turns the strengths of sin to dust,

Thy blast which burns up towers and thrones with fire.

Lord, is this gift, this grace that I require,

So great a gift, Lord, for thy grace to give

And bid me bear thy part retributive?

That I whom scorn makes mouths at, I might be

Thy witness if loud sin may mock at thee?

For lo, my life is as a barren ear

Plucked from the sheaf: dark days drive past me here

Downtrodden, while joy's reapers pile their sheaves,

A thing more vile than autumn's weariest leaves,

For these the sun filled once with sap of life.

O thou my lord that hadst me to thy wife,

Dost thou not fear at all, remembering me,

The love that bowed my whole soul down to thee?

Is this so wholly nought for man to dread,

Man, whose life walks between the quick and dead,

Naked, and warred about with wind and sea,

That one should love and hate as I do thee?

That one should live in all the world his foe

So mortal as the hate that loves him so?

Nought, is it nought, O husband, O my knight,

O strong man and indomitable in fight,

That one more weak than foam-bells on the sea

Should have in heart such thoughts as I of thee?

Thou art bound about with stately strengths for bands:

What strength shall keep thee from my strengthless hands?

Thou art girt about with goodly guards and great:

What fosse may fence thee round as deep as hate?

Thou art wise: will wisdom teach thee fear of me?

Thou art great of heart: shall this deliver thee?

What wall so massive, or what tower so high,

Shall be thy surety that thou shouldst not die,

If that which comes against thee be but I?

Who shall rise up of power to take thy part,

What skill find strength to save, what strength find art,

If that which wars against thee be my heart?

Not iron, nor the might of force afield,

Nor edge of sword, nor sheltering weight of shield,

Nor all thy fame since all thy praise began,

Nor all the love and laud thou hast of man,

Nor, though his noiseless hours with wool be shod,

Shall God's love keep thee from the wrath of God.

O son of sorrows, hast thou said at heart,

Haply, God loves thee, God shall take thy part,

Who hath all these years endured thee, since thy birth

From sorrow's womb bade sin be born on earth?

So long he hath cast his buckler over thee,

Shall he not surely guard thee even from me?

Yea, but if yet he give thee while I live

Into mine hands as he shall surely give,

Ere death at last bring darkness on thy face,

Call then on him, call not on me for grace,

Cast not away one prayer, one suppliant breath,

On me that commune all this while with death.

For I that was not and that was thy wife

Desire not but one hour of all thy life

Wherein to triumph till that hour be past;

But this mine hour I look for is thy last.'

So mused she till the fire in sea and sky

Sank, and the northwest wind spake harsh on high,

And like the sea's heart waxed her heart that heard,

Strong, dark, and bitter, till the keen wind's word

Seemed of her own soul spoken, and the breath

All round her not of darkness, but of death.