LOVE ETERNAL

Let us walk together, lass, (Lean upon me—so!) Through the field of feathergrass (How the daisies grow!) Till we find the word to say What is in our hearts to-day.

Yes, I loved you from the first. Dear, there is surprise Blent with hunger and with thirst In your eager eyes, And you whisper: "Is it true?"— Knowing that I always knew!

Let me tell you how it came: Voices through the room; Then one spoke to me your name (Take this wild rose bloom— I will place it in your hair) And of you I was aware.

"She is of a slender grace, Like my Maid of dreams!" To myself I said—"Her face With that beauty gleams— Beauty of that One I know In the Land of Long-Ago!"

Did you, dearest, understand Why the scarlet grew On my forehead, when my hand Your fair fingers knew? Oh, the world went very still While on me you worked your will!

Worked your will? Do not deny; For your heart was wise— Ah, you shake your head and try Vainly to disguise What was on your lips to say When we met that fateful day!

For from all eternity We are pledged to love, Bound in all our lives to be True to what above All the turmoil and the din Strives that starry tryst to win.

Sit with me upon this stone Underneath the bough; Let the blossoms to us blown Learn our ancient vow— Vow we made before the stars Strove to break Night's prison-bars.

Lift your head and meet my gaze. Do you not recall Somewhere in a golden haze, Vistaed vast, a hall Paved with diamond and domed Blue above a fount that foamed

With the water from the well Guarded, so they say, By the angel Israfel? Water of eternal bliss Sprinkled on the lips that kiss!

There we lived before the suns Led the planets up; There we pledged the winged Ones In a crystal cup, Ere we left that pillared home Through the field of Time to roam.

"Why," you ask me, dearest, "why Did we leave that place— Is it such a thing to die?" Ponder for a space: What if love must lose to gain, Find eternal peace in pain?

"But I want the Ever-Now!" Dear, do you not know They who drive the patient plough And the furrows sow, Own the sinews of the strong— Reap the harvest with a song?

"Let the scattered fragments be Gathered from the feast, Nothing lost"; thus speaketh He Who is Love's High Priest, And He knows who from a cross Pledged return for every loss.

Thus, my Maid of long ago, Here within the field Let me tell what you would know: How I came to yield To your eyes, your lips, your hair, When the guests were gathered there

In the room that day we met, Found amid the talk Light of ancient suns which set AEons ere the chalk Cliffs of Dover gleamed upon Merchant-prows from Babylon.

Love and Life eternal are, Fill unfathomed space, Bind with rapture star to star, Gleam from every face, Soar with angels, plunge to hell: Lucifer and Israfel!

So above the choric spheres, At the knees of God You and I beyond the years Kissed, then clove the clod With our spirit's sundered flame; Till amid the talk your name

Fell seraphic, smote me through With unearthly pain: I was I and you were you— Met on earth again, Bound to live and bound to love By that oath we made above!