Life of my life, wilt thou not answer this? 'The dusky strand of Death inwoven here With dear Love's tie, makes Love himself more dear.' 8. Is that enchanted moan only the swell Of the long waves that roll in yonder bay? And hark the clock within, the silver knell Of twelve sweet hours that past in bridal white, But now by this my love has closed her sight My own heart's heart and ownest own farewell; And ye meanwhile far over moor and fell Has our whole earth gone nearer to the glow I have climb'd nearer out of lonely Hell. Beat, happy stars, timing with things below, Beat with my heart more blest than heart can tell, Blest, but for some dark undercurrent woe That seems to draw-but it shall not be so : XIX. 1. HER brother is coming back to-night, 2. My dream? do I dream of bliss ? O when did a morning shine So rich in atonement as this For my dark-dawning youth, Darken'd watching a mother decline And that dead man at her heart and mine : For who was left to watch her but I? Yet so did I let my freshness die. 3. I trust that I did not talk To gentle Maud in our walk (For often in lonely wanderings I have cursed him even to lifeless things) Not touch on her father's sin : I am sure I did but speak Of my mother's faded cheek When it slowly grew so thin, That I felt she was slowly dying Vext with lawyers and harass'd with debt : For how often I caught her with eyes all wet, Shaking her head at her son and sighing A world of trouble within! 4. And Maud too, Maud was moved F As one scarce less forlorn, Dying abroad and it seems apart From him who had ceased to share her heart, And ever mourning over the feud, The household Fury sprinkled with blood By which our houses are torn: How strange was what she said, When only Maud and the brother That Maud's dark father and mine Had bound us one to the other, Betrothed us over their wine, On the day when Maud was born; Seal'd her mine from her first sweet breath. Mine, mine by a right, from birth till death, Mine, mine-our fathers have sworn. 5. But the true blood spilt had in it a heat To dissolve the precious seal on a bond, |