Classic Poem

Satan.

Lovelier is she than a poet's dreaming?
Brighter are her eyes than starlight gleaming?
Is the sun less golden than her hair?
Did thy youth pass greyly and in sorrow?
Weary, didst thou sleep — and on the morrow
Didst thou wake, and find a goddess there?

Lover.

Lo! my soul was lost. Alone I wandered.
By the deadly river-waves I pondered,
Gazing in their dark and bitter flow.
But my heart was changed, for true love found me:
Took my weary life in hand, and crowned me:
Spread across the heavens a sunset-glow.

Satan.

Sweet she is; but time's track never changes;
Over all the golden fields he ranges,
Flower-destroying. Shall he spare thy bliss?
Pleasant are her lips; but time will chill them,
Not for ever will the old sweetness fill them,
Thou wilt tire before the thousandth kiss!

Lover.

I was lost and sad, and very weary.
Through the gloom of life, the darkness dreary,
Came the vision of a perfect thing.
Autumn was it. Through the forest-arches,
Underneath the October-yellowed larches,
Came a presence fairer than of Spring.

Satan.

And again, when thou dost wax quite olden,
Underneath the autumn foliage golden
Thou shalt wander — wander quite alone.
Death may love the lips thou lovest dearly;
Death's grim bugle-call may ring out clearly,
And her lips may answer with a moan.

Lover.

Surely God, who made this perfect creature,
Set the stamp of heaven in every feature,
Having given, will take her not away?
Can God steal from heaven the stars that glitter?
Slay the golden sun? Oh, that were bitter!
Can he pour wild darkness over day?

Satan.

Even if she lives, thou wilt not know her
When another fifty years shall show her
Changed and gaunt and wrinkled to thy gaze.
Hardly then thy changed heart shall remember
Her who made the dark woods one September
Sweeter than the woods of sunniest Mays.

Lover.

Darling! As the long years fleet and perish,
With a tenderer sweet love will I cherish,
Guard, protect, and tend, and worship thee.
Never will my strong love change one tittle!
Though the waves may eat away the brittle
Rocks that seemed so stalwart round the sea!

Satan.

Long before one iron-bound cliff has faltered,
Will thy love be changed in form and altered;
While the stern cliffs still resist the wave,
Passion will be but a distant glimmer.
Slowly next thy love-thoughts will wax dimmer,
Till at last they are ghosts around a grave.

Lover.

When we wandered in the golden morning
Through the fields, we watched the flowers adorning
Leaf and stalk and petal, every one.
" See, " we said, " the blossoms' hearts are jealous!
Each to outstrip her rival bloom is zealous,
Each desires her sovereign lord, the sun. "

Satan.

And at night-time over field and garden
Fall the moonrays, and the blossoms harden
Heart and leaf and petal in the cold.
When the sun arises in his splendour
Dead are all those blossoms over-tender,
Though he kissed them with his mouth of gold.

Lover.

Once I doubted all things, all things human;
Railed at God, and scoffed at man and woman;
Now I find a never dreamt-of bliss.
God has sent me blessing for my curses,
In his undeserved and priceless mercies
Given me heaven in one pure woman's kiss.

C HRIST .

Lover: hold thy noble faith unshaken!
Love her purely. If thy love be taken,
Know that she is safe with God and me.
Know that past the heavens, with angel sweetness
In her face, she waits thy soul's completeness;
Past the stars, the thunder, and the sea.