Jephthah and Other Mysteries

62 JEPHTHAH. Flowers the ocean bears. All the garb that gladness wears To a rent uncouth attire Changed with cares ; Happy songs our love had made Ere the sun had sunk his fire, - In the moonrise fall and fade, And the dregs of our desire Fall away to death ; Tears divide our labouring breath That our sister—O our sister ! Moon and sun and stars have kissed her She must touch the lips of death, Touch the lips whose coldness saith : Thou art clay. Let us fare away, away To the ice whose ocean gray Tumbles on the beach of rock, Where the wheeling vultures mock Our distress with horrid cries, Where the flower relenting dies, And the sun is sharp to slay ; Where the ivory dome above Glimmers like the dawn of love On the weary way ; Where the ibex chant and call Over tempest’s funeral ; Where the horndd beast is shrill, And the eagle hath his will, And the shadows fall