CXXXV.

LUCIFER IN STARLIGHT.

ON a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose.
Tired of his dark dominion swung the fiend
Above the rolling ball in cloud part screened,
Where sinners hugged their spectre of repose.
Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those.

And now upon his western wing he leaned,
Now his huge bulk o'er Africa careened,

Now the black planet shadowed Arctic snows.
Soaring through wider zones that pricked his scars
With memory of the old revolt from Awe,

He reached a middle height, and at the stars,

Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank. Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank, The army of unalterable law.

CXXXVI.

RENOUNCEMENT.

I MUST not think of thee; and, tired yet strong,
I shun the love that lurks in all delight-

The love of thee-and in the blue Heaven's height, And in the dearest passage of a song.

Oh just beyond the sweetest thoughts that throng This breast, the thought of thee waits hidden yet

bright;

But it must never, never come in sight;

I must stop short of thee the whole day long.

But when sleep comes to close each difficult day,
When night gives pause to the long watch I keep,
And all my bonds I needs must loose apart,
Must doff my will as raiment laid away,-

With the first dream that comes with the first sleep
I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.

CXXXVII.

WITHOUT HIM.

"Senza te son nulla."-PETRARCA.

I TOUCHED the heart that loved me, as a player
Touches a lyre; content with my poor skill
No touch save mine knew my belov'd (and still
I thought at times: Is there no sweet lost air
Old loves could wake in him, I cannot share ?);
Oh, he alone, alone could so fulfil

My thoughts in sound to the measure of my will. He is dead, and silence takes me unaware.

The songs I knew not he resumes, set free
From my constraining love, alas for me!
His part in our tune goes with him; my part
Is locked in me for ever; I stand as mute
As one with full strung music in his heart
Whose fingers stray upon a shattered lute.

OXXXVIII.

SPRING AMONG THE ALBAN HILLS.

ΤΟ

"Silent with expectation."-SHELLEY.

O'ER the Campagna it is dim warm weather,
The Spring comes with a full heart silently
And many thoughts; a faint flash of the sea
Divides two mists; straight falls the falling feather.

With wild Spring meanings hill and plain together
Grow pale, or just flush with a dust of flowers.
Rome in the ages, dimmed with all her towers,
Floats in the midst, a little cloud at tether.

I fain would put my hands about thy face,

Thou with thy thoughts, who art another Spring, And draw thee to me like a mournful child.

Thou lookest on me from another place;

I touch not this day's secret, nor the thing
That in thy silence makes thy sweet eyes wild.

CXXXIX.

LIFE AND DEATH.

FROM morn to eve they struggled-Life and Death.
At first it seemed to me that they in mirth
Contended, and as foes of equal worth,

So firm their feet, so undisturbed their breath.
But when the sharp red sun cut through its sheath
Of western clouds, I saw the brown arms' girth
Tighten and bear that radiant form to earth
And suddenly both fell upon the heath.
And then the wonder came-for when I fled
To where those great antagonists down fell
I could not find the body that I sought,
And when and where it went I could not tell,

One only form was left of those who fought, The long dark form of Death-and it was dead.