Classic Poem

" Have you no faith in God? " He . —
" At times I have:
At other times my very soul despairs.
The world seems one enormous loveless grave, —
Dark, but for fiery blasts of hell's hot airs.
Yes, my queen-sweetheart, were it not for you,
I think I'd hardly care to struggle on:
Still on me beamed a glimpse of sunlit blue
And God's eyes seemed to smile, when your eyes shone.

I know it. Yet a horror grips me hard,
A horror lest the Lord, in bringing you
Into my life thus, played his last trump card
And now has nothing further good to do.
Such eyes as yours he wisely kept in store:
He could not twice produce a thing so sweet.
Now, having played you, what can he do more,
Save acquiesce in sorrow and defeat? " She . —
" Another inference is just and wise,
Juster and wiser: that the God who put
Beauty and hope (you say) within my eyes
Can bring life's bud to flower, life's flower to fruit. " He . —
" And yet he seems to me a Janus-god
Often, — two-faced, deceiving, wanton, hard.
Why did he open out so sweet a road,
And then leave every gate at the ending barred?
In one word, why did God so fill my heart
With overflowing love and sweet desire,
Desire of you, if at the end we part?
Can God make holiest hope, profoundest liar? " She . —
" We have not parted yet. " He . —
" The very thought
Is like a storm-wind whirling all the stars
Across black space. God made this world for nought,
The golden sun, soft Venus, fiery Mars,
The universe in fine, when thus he brought
My strong love face to face with mocking bars! " She . —
" Perhaps, where love is, iron bars only seem :
One day yourself may own that God is true,
True past your wildest most poetic dream. " He . —
" On one condition — that he gives me you. "