The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Volume IV Part 2

VIII.

O my poet, O my prophet, When you praised their sweetness so, Did you think, in singing of it, That it might be near to go?

Had you fancies From their glances, That the grave would quickly screen "Sweetest eyes were ever seen"?

IX.

No reply. The fountain's warble In the courtyard sounds alone.

As the water to the marble So my heart falls with a moan From love-sighing To this dying.

Death forerunneth Love to win "Sweetest eyes were ever seen."

X.

_Will_ you come? When I'm departed Where all sweetnesses are hid, Where thy voice, my tender-hearted, Will not lift up either lid.

Cry, O lover, Love is over!

Cry, beneath the cypress green, "Sweetest eyes were ever seen!"

XI.

When the angelus is ringing, Near the convent will you walk, And recall the choral singing Which brought angels down our talk?

Spirit-shriven I viewed Heaven, Till you smiled--"Is earth unclean, Sweetest eyes were ever seen?"

XII.

When beneath the palace-lattice You ride slow as you have done, And you see a face there that is Not the old familiar one,-- Will you oftly Murmur softly, "Here ye watched me morn and e'en, Sweetest eyes were ever seen!"

XIII.

When the palace-ladies, sitting Round your gittern, shall have said, "Poet, sing those verses written For the lady who is dead,"

Will you tremble Yet dissemble,-- Or sing hoa.r.s.e, with tears between, "Sweetest eyes were ever seen"?

XIV.

"Sweetest eyes!" how sweet in flowings The repeated cadence is!

Though you sang a hundred poems, Still the best one would be this.

I can hear it 'Twixt my spirit And the earth-noise intervene-- "Sweetest eyes were ever seen!"

XV.

But the priest waits for the praying, And the choir are on their knees, And the soul must pa.s.s away in Strains more solemn-high than these.

_Miserere_ For the weary!

Oh, no longer for Catrine "Sweetest eyes were ever seen!"

XVI.

Keep my riband, take and keep it, (I have loosed it from my hair)[1]

Feeling, while you overweep it, Not alone in your despair, Since with saintly Watch unfaintly Out of heaven shall o'er you lean "Sweetest eyes were ever seen."

XVII.

But--but _now_--yet unremoved Up to heaven, they glisten fast; You may cast away, Beloved, In your future all my past: Such old phrases May be praises For some fairer bosom-queen-- "Sweetest eyes were ever seen!"

XVIII.

Eyes of mine, what are ye doing?

Faithless, faithless,--praised amiss If a tear be of your showing, Dropt for any hope of HIS!

Death has boldness Besides coldness, If unworthy tears demean "Sweetest eyes were ever seen."

XIX.

I will look out to his future; I will bless it till it s.h.i.+ne.

Should he ever be a suitor Unto sweeter eyes than mine, Suns.h.i.+ne gild them, Angels s.h.i.+eld them, Whatsoever eyes terrene _Be_ the sweetest HIS have seen!

FOOTNOTES:

[1] She left him the riband from her hair.

LIFE AND LOVE.

I.

Fast this Life of mine was dying, Blind already and calm as death, Snowflakes on her bosom lying Scarcely heaving with her breath.

II.

Love came by, and having known her In a dream of fabled lands, Gently stooped, and laid upon her Mystic chrism of holy hands;

III.

Drew his smile across her folded Eyelids, as the swallow dips; Breathed as finely as the cold did Through the locking of her lips.

IV.

So, when Life looked upward, being Warmed and breathed on from above, What sight could she have for seeing, Evermore ... but only LOVE?

A DENIAL.

I.

We have met late--it is too late to meet, O friend, not more than friend!

Death's forecome shroud is tangled round my feet, And if I step or stir, I touch the end.