He thought to quell the stubborn hearts of oak, From Ind to Ind, but in fair daylight woke, We taught him; late he learned humility, Perforce, like those whom Gideon schooled with briars. MARIANA. WITH blackest moss the flower plots That held the peach to the garden wall. She only said, "My life is dreary, Her tears fell with the dews at even, Her tears fell ere the dews were dried; She could not look on the sweet heaven, Either at morn or eventide. After the flitting of the bats, When thickest dark did trance the sky, She drew her casement curtain by, And glanced athwart the glooming flats. She only said, "The night is dreary, He cometh not," she said; She said, "I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!" Upon the middle of the night, Waking, she heard the night fowl crow: She only said, "The day is dreary, About a stone-cast from the wall, A sluice with blackened waters slept, All silver green with gnarled bark, She only said, "My life is dreary, And ever when the moon was low, In the white curtain, to and fro, She saw the gusty shadow sway. But when the moon was very low, And wild winds bound within their cell, The shadow of the poplar fell Upon her bed, across her brow. She only said, "The night is dreary, All day within the dreamy house, The doors upon their hinges creaked; The blue fly sung i' the pane; the mouse Behind the mouldering wainscot shrieked, Or from the crevice peered about. Old faces glimmered through the doors, Old footsteps trod the upper floors, Old voices called her from without. She only said, " My life is dreary, He cometh not," she said; She said, I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!" The sparrow's chirrup on the roof, Her sense; but most she loathed the hour THE MERMAN. WHO would be With a crown of gold, On a throne? I would be a merman bold; I would sit and sing the whole of the day; And then we would wander away, away, There would be neither moon nor star; But the wave would make music above us far; We would call aloud in the dreamy dells, All night, merrily, merrily: They would pelt me with starry spangles and shells, Laughing and clapping their hands between, But I would throw to them back in mine Oh! what a happy life were mine THE MERMAID. WHO would be I would be a mermaid fair; I would sing to myself the whole of the day; 46 Who is it loves me? who loves not me?" I would comb my hair till my ringlets would fall, From under my starry sea-bud crown, Low adown and around, And I should look like a fountain of gold Springing alone, With a shrill inner sound, Over the throne In the midst of the hall; Till that great sea-snake under the sea, From his coiled sleeps in the central deeps, Would slowly trail himself sevenfold Round the hall where I sate, and look in at the gate, With his large calm eyes for the love of me. |