Poems by Marietta Holley Part 4

Then with my burning cheek, Raising my head, I speak, "Lemoine, Lemoine, my lost! Oh, speak to me once, I pray!"

But no word will she deign, Adown the s.h.i.+ning lane, The long and l.u.s.trous lane of the moonlight she glides away.

I fancy oft a stir, Of wings seem following her, Trailing a terrible gloom along the oaken floor, As she walks to and fro; Louder the strange sounds grow To a nameless, dreadful horror, that floods the chamber o'er.

And then I raise my head From terror-haunted bed, And hush my breath, and my very pulses hush and hark; But as I glance around, The stir, the murmuring sound, Dies away in the moonlight, lying there stiff and stark.

And thus you ever flee, Elude and baffle me, My lady you will not always so lightly glide away; Though on the swiftest breeze, You sail o'er farthest seas, Remember, side by side we two will stand one day.

Though my dust feed the wind, Yours be with prayer consigned To the keeping of churchyard seraphs and marble saints; Lemoine, we two shall meet, And not then at my feet Will you fetter a late repentance with wiles and tearful plaints.

Repentance and strong, That would have found a tongue, And shrieked the truth to heaven with madd'ning din; The truth of that dread hour, That black accursed hour, When to free you from hated fetters, I plunged my soul in sin.

Whatever wise man thinks, Sin forges strongest links, You can break them never, although for a time you may hide Buried in flowers and wine; This chain of thine and mine, At the last dread day of doom will draw us side by side.

If one, then both are cursed, And come the best, the worst, Forever and ever your fate and mine are entwined; And though it be mad--mad, Heaven knows the thought is glad, I do not breed my thoughts, how can I help my mind.

So silent doth she come, Standing here pale and dumb, With her finger laid on her lips in a warning way; Her dark eyes looking back, As if upon her track And mine, some phantom shape of impending evil lay.

But when I strive to see, Of what she's warning me, Cruelly calm, no sign will she deign to love or fears; Unheeding vow or prayer, As noiseless as the air, She glideth into the pallid moonlight and disappears.

SLEEP.

Come to me soft-eyed sleep, With your ermine sandalled feet; Press the pain from my troubled brow With your kisses cool and sweet; Lull me with slumbrous song, Song of your clime, the blest, While on my heavy eyelids Your dewy fingers rest.

Come with your native flowers, Heartsease and lotus bloom, Enwrap my weary senses With the cloud of their perfume; For the whispers of thought tire me, Their constant, dull repeat, Like low waves throbbing, sobbing, With endless, endless beat.

THE LADY MAUD.

I sit in the cloud and the darkness Where I lost you, peerless one; Your bright face s.h.i.+nes upon fairer lands, Like the dawning of the sun, And what to you is the rustic youth, You sometimes smiled upon.

You have roamed through mighty cities, By the Orient's gleaming sea, Down the glittering streets of Venice, And soft-skied Araby: Life to you has been an anthem, But a solemn dirge to me.

For everywhere, by Rome's bright hills, Or by the silvery Rhine, You win all hearts to you, where'er Your glancing tresses s.h.i.+ne; But, darling, the love of the many, Is not a love like mine.

Last night I heard your voice in my dreams, I woke with a joyous thrill To hear but the half-awakened birds, For the dark dawn lingered still, And the lonesome sound of the waters, At the foot of Carey's hill.

Oh the pines are dark on Carey's hill, And the waters are black below, But they shone like waves of jasper Upon one day I know, The day I bore you out of the stream, With your face as white as snow.

You lay like a little lamb in my arms, So frail a thing, so weak, And my coward lips said burning words They never had dared to speak If they had not felt the chill of your brow, And the marble of your cheek.

Life had been but a bitter gift, That I fain would have thrown away, But I could have thanked my G.o.d on my knees, For giving me life that day, As I took you, lying so helpless, From the gates of death away.

How your n.o.ble kinsmen laughed and wept O'er their treasure s.n.a.t.c.hed from the flood, And your white-faced brother brought me gold-- You loved him, or I could Have obeyed the fiend that told me To curse him where he stood.

Gold! Oh, darling, they had no need Such insults to repeat; I knew the Heaven was above the earth, I knew, I knew, my sweet, I was not worthy to touch the shoes That covered your dainty feet.

I knew as you laid your hand in mine, So kind as I turned away, That we were severed as wide apart, That hour, as we are to-day, And you in your stately English home, So far, so far away.

That soft white hand you laid in mine With a smile as I turned to go, Oh, Lady Maud, I marvel If you ever stoop so low, As to wonder what those tears meant, That glittered on its snow.

But I know if you had dreamed the truth Your beautiful dark brown eyes Would only have grown more gentle, With a sorrowful surprise; For a n.o.bler and a kinder heart Ne'er beat beneath the skies.

You never meant to give me pain, But oh, 'twas a cruel good, I so low in the world's esteem, You of such n.o.ble blood, That you stooped to as gentle words and deeds, As ever an angel could.

I blessed you for your brightness When you came unto our sh.o.r.e, For the dull earth caught a beauty It never had before; But you left a lonesome shadow, That will lie there evermore.

How proud the good s.h.i.+p bore you Adown the golden bay, The sun's last light upon its sails-- I stood there mournfully; For I know it left the darkness-- Took the sunlight all away.

THE HAUNTED CASTLE.

It stands alone on a haunted sh.o.r.e, With curious words of deathless lore On its ma.s.sive gate impearled; And its carefully guarded mystic key Locks in its silent mystery From the seeking eyes of the world.

Oft do its stately walls repeat Echoes of music wildly sweet Swelling to gladness high-- With mournful ballads of ancient time, And funeral hymns--and a nursery rhyme Dying away in a sigh.

Pictures out of each haunted room, Up through the ghostly shadows loom, And gleam with a spectral light; Pictures lit with a radiant glow, And some that image such desolate woe That, weeping, you turn from the sight.

s.h.i.+ning like stars in the twilight gloom Brows as white as a lily's bloom Gleam from its lattice and door; And voices soft as a seraph's note, Through its mysterious chambers float Back from eternity's sh.o.r.e.

In the mournful silence of midnight air You hear on its stately and winding stair The echoes of fairy feet.

Gentle footsteps that lightly fall Through the enchanted castle hall, And up in the golden street.

And still in a dark forsaken tower, Crowned with a withered cypress flower, Is a bowed head turned away; A face like carved marble white, Sweet eyes drooping away from the light, Shunning the eye of day.

And oft when the light burns low and dim A haggard form ungainly and grim Unbidden enters the door; With chiding eyes whose burning light You fain would bury in darkness and night, Never to meet you more.

Mysteries strange its still walls keep, Strange are the forms that through it sweep-- Walking by night and by day.

But evermore will the castle hall Echo their footsteps' phantom fall, Till its walls shall crumble away.

THE STORY OF GLADYS.

"I leave my child to Heaven." And with these words Upon her lips, the Lady Mildred pa.s.sed Unto the rest prepared for her pure soul; Words that meant only this: I cannot trust Unto her earthly parent my young child, So leave her to her heavenly Father's care; And Heaven was gentle to the motherless, And fair and sweet the maiden, Gladys, grew, A pure white rose in the old castle set, The while her father rioted abroad.