Classic Poem

They faced each other: Topaz-brown
And lambent burned her eyes and shot
Sharp flame at his of amethyst. —
" I hate you! Go, and be forgot
As death forgets! " their glitter hissed
(So seemed it) in their hatred. Ho!
Dared any mortal front her so? —
Tempestuous eyebrows knitted down —
Tense nostril, mouth — no muscle slack, —
And black — the suffocating black —
The stifling blackness of her frown!

Ah! but the lifted face of her!
And the twitched lip and tilted head!
Yet he did neither wince nor stir, —
Only — his hands clenched; and, instead
Of words, he answered with a stare
That stammered not in aught it said,
As might his voice if trusted there.

And what — what spake his steady gaze? —
Was there a look that harshly fell
To scoff her? — or a syllable
Of anger? — or the bitter phrase
That myrrhs the honey of love's lips,
Or curdles blood as poison-drips?
What made their breasts to heave and swell
As billows under bows of ships
In broken seas on stormy days?
We may not know — nor they indeed —
What mercy found them in their need.

A sudden sunlight smote the gloom;
And round about them swept a breeze,
With faint breaths as of clover-bloom;
A bird was heard, through drone of bees, —
Then, far and clear and eerily,
A child's voice from an orchard-tree —
Then laughter, sweet as the perfume
Of lilacs, could the hearing see.
And he — O Love! he fed thy name
On bruised kisses, while her dim
Deep eyes, with all their inner flame,
Like drowning gems were turned on him.