The Golden Helm Part 4

I.

KING AND QUEEN.

1.

The day has come; at last my dream unfolds White, wondering petals with the rising sun.

No other glade in Love's world-garden holds So fair a bloom from vanquished winter won.

Long, oh, so long I watched through budding hours, And, trembling, feared my dream would never wake; As, one by one, I saw star-tranced flowers Out on the night their dewy splendour shake.

But with the earliest gleam of dawn it stirred, Knowing that Love had put the dark to flight; And I must sing more glad than any bird Because the sun has filled my dream with light.

2.

Is it high noon, already, in the land?

O Love, I dreamed that morn could never pa.s.s; That we might ever wander, hand in hand, As children in June-meadows plucking flowers, Through ever-waking, fresh-unfolding hours: Yet now we sink love-wearied in the gra.s.s; Yea, it is noon, high noon in all the land.

The young wind slumbers; all the little birds That sang about us in the fields of morn Are songless now; no happy flight of words On Love's lip hovers--Love has waxed to noon.

Ah, G.o.d, if Love should wane to evening soon To perish in a sunless world, forlorn, And cease with the last song of weary birds!

3.

At dawn I gathered flowers of white, To garland them for your delight.

At noon I gathered flowers of blue, To weave them into joy for you.

At eve I gather purple flowers, To strew above the withered hours.

4.

She knelt at eve beside the stream, And, sighing, sang: "O waters clear, Forsaken now of joy and fear, I come to drown a withered dream.

"Unseen of day, I let it fall Within the shadow of my hair.

O little dream, that bloomed so fair, The waters hide you after all!"

5.

"Is it not dawn?" she cried, and raised her head, "Or hath the sun, grey-shrouded, yesternight, Gone down with Love for ever to the dead?

When Love has perished, can there yet be light?"

"Yea, it is dawn," one answered: "see the dew Quivers agleam, and all the east is white; While in the willow song begins anew."

"When Love has perished, can there yet be light?"

II.

AVERLAINE AND ARKELD.

1.

ARKELD: Oh, why did you lift your eyes to mine?

Oh, why did you lift your drooping head?

AVERLAINE: The tangled threads of the fates entwine Our hearts that follow as children led.

ARKELD: From the utmost ends of the earth we came, As star moves starward through wildering night.

AVERLAINE: Our souls have mingled as flame with flame, Yea, they have mingled as light with light.

ARKELD: Ah G.o.d, ah G.o.d, that it never had been!

AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!

ARKELD: The stars in their courses move through the sky Unswerving, unheeding, cold and blind.

AVERLAINE: Why did you linger nor pa.s.s me by Where the cross-roads meet in the ways that wind?

ARKELD: I saw your eyes from the dusk of your hair Flame out with sorrow and yearning love.

AVERLAINE: And I, who wandered with grey despair, Looking up, saw heaven in blossom above.

ARKELD: Ah G.o.d, ah G.o.d, that it never had been!

AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!

ARKELD: May we not go as we came, alone, Unto the ends of the earth anew?

AVERLAINE: May we draw afresh from the rose new-blown The golden sunlight, the crystal dew?

ARKELD: Yea, love between us has bloomed as a rose Out of the desert under our feet.

AVERLAINE: May we forget how the red heart glows, Forget that the dew on the petals is sweet?

ARKELD: Ah G.o.d, ah G.o.d, that it never had been!

AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!

ARKELD: Have the ages brought us together that we Might tremble, start at shadows, and cry?

AVERLAINE: Yea, it has been, and ever will be Till Sorrow be slain or Love's self die.

ARKELD: Stronger than Sorrow is Love; and Hate, The brother of Love, shall end our Sorrow.