Collected Works (Vol. I)

A VALENTINE, ’98 121 Silent and slim and delicate The flower shall spring, Till there be born immaculate A fair new thing. Tall as the mother-lily, still By faint winds swayed ; Tender and pure, without a will— An English maid. No tree of poison, at whose feet All men lie dead ; No well of death, whose waters sweet Are tinged with red. No hideous impassioned queen For whom love dies; No warm imperious Messaline That slew with sighs. Fiercer desires may cast away All things most good ; A people may forget to-day Their motherhood. She will remain, unshaken yet By storm and sun ; She will remain, when years forget That fierier one. A race of clean strong men shall spring From her pure life. Men shall be happy ; bards shall sing The English wife. And thou, forget thou that my mouth EIas ever clung To flame of hell; that of the south The songs I sung. Forget that I have trampled flowers, And worn the crown Of thorns of roses in the hours So long dropped drown. Forget, O white-faced maid, that I Have dallied long In classic bowers and mystery Of classic song. Eros and Aphrodite now I can forget, Placing upon thy maiden brow Love’s coronet, Wake from the innocent dear sleep Of childhood’s life : An English maiden must not weep To be a wife. So shall our love bridge space, and bring The tender breath Of sun and moon and stars that sing To gladden Death. I see your cheek grow pale and cold, Then flush above. ) Kiss me; I know that I behold The birth of Love. PENELOPE. ULYssES ’scaped the sorceries of that queen That turned to swine his goodly com- pany, And came with sails broad-burgeoning and clean Over the ripples of his native sea. Yet for the shores his eyes had lately seen, He kept a half-regretful memory ; And thought, when all the flower-strewn ways were green, ‘* Better love Circe than Penelope !” Yes. A govod woman’s love will forge a chain To break the spirit of the bravest Greek ; While with an harlot one may leap again Free as the waters of the western main, And turn with no heart-pang the vessel’s beak Out to the oceans that all seamen seek.