Iv

Of those whom Passion’s wandering desires Drove or beguiled to gates that duty barred, The contest of the elemental fires Of flesh and spirit strengthened some, some marred.

These conscious of the right, to sin afraid, Obedient in deed but not in heart,-- These never brought dishonour on a maid, Nor left their gold with women of the mart;

But, while the outward evil they eschewed, They lusted for the fruit they dared not touch; The path they feared to tread their dreams pursued, And left them bondsmen in temptation’s clutch;

Who ruled by appetites they dared not feed, And cursed by passions that were meant to bless, Learnt that to such abstention is decreed Punishment stern as that which smites excess.

The others no less warm of blood than they, Like them by duty checked in the pursuit, Disdained to peer through gates that barred the way, And feed their fancies on forbidden fruit.

Their faith in love, like the clear noonday lit Those tangled pathways of the lure, the mesh: They went their way refusing to submit To tyrannies of conscience or of flesh.

They matched their wills with nature’s brutal force, And readily their servant it became: Their joy was like the rider’s in the horse Whose spirit he controls but would not tame.

Life’s keen activities, the toil, the play, The venture, all that put their strength to test,-- These sped their thoughts and turned their hearts away From sloth’s seductions and desire’s unrest.

But Love was with them: no unchecked desires Or wandering fancies ever brought the thrill, The joy in womanhood, that lit love’s fires In these of the clean blood and strengthened will.

For them love’s passion, when it found its rest, Glowed with a light no after-gloom could mar, Soft as the wild-rose glory in the west That, fading, lifts the veil that hides a star.