XXXV.
Nay—yet it chafes me that I could not bend

One will ; nor tame and tutor with mine eye That dull cold blooded Cæsar. Prithee, friend, Where is Mark Antony ?

XXXVI. “ The man my lover, with whom I rode sublime

On Fortune's neck: we sat as God by God: The Nilus would have risen before his time

And flooded at our nod.

XXXVII. “We drank the Lybian Sun to sleep, and lit

Lamps which outburned Canopus. O my life In Egypt! O the dalliance and the wit,

The flattery and the strife,

XXXVIII.

" And the wild kiss, when fresh from war's alarms,

My Hercules, my Roman Antony, My mailéd Bacchus leapt into my arms,

Contented there to die !

XXXIX. " And there he died; and when I heard my name

Sighed forth with life I would not brook my fear Of the other: with a worm I balked his fame.

What else was left ?-look here!”

XL.

(With that she tore her robe apart, and half

The polished argent of her breast to sight Laid bare. Thereto she pointed with a laugh,

Showing the aspick's bite :)

XLI.

“1 died a Queen. The Roman soldier found

Me lying dead, my crown about my brows,

A name forever-lying robed and crowned,

Worthy a Roman spouse.”

XLII.

Her warbling voice, a lyre of widest range

Struck by all passion, did fall down and glance From tone to tone, and glided through all change

Of liveliest utterance.

XLIII.

When she made pause I knew not for delight;

Because with sudden motion from the ground She raised her piercing orbs and filled with light

The interval of sound.

XLIV.
Still with their fires Love tipt his keenest darts ;

As once they drew into two burning rings
All beams of Love, melting the mighty hearts

Of captains and of kings.

XLV.

Slowly my sense undazzled. Then I heard

A noise of some one coming through the lawn, And singing clearer than the crested bird,

That claps his wings at dawn.

XLVI. u The torrent brooks of hallowed Israel . From

craggy höllows pouring, late and soon, Sound all night long, in falling through the dell,

Far-heard beneath the moon.

XLVII. " The balmy moon of blessed Israel Floods all the deep-blue gloom with beanis

divine : All night the splintered crags that wall the dell

With spires of silver shine.”

XLVIII.
As one that museth where broad sunshine laves

The lawn by some cathedral, through the door Hearing the holy organ rolling waves

Of sound on roof and floor

XLIX.
Within, and anthem sung, is charmed and tied

To where he stands,--so stood I, when that flow Of music left the lips of her that died

To save her father's vow;

L.

The daughter of the warrior Gileadite,

A maiden pure; as when she went along, From Mizpeh's towered gate with welcome light,

With timbrel and with song.

LI. My words leapt forth: “Heaven heads the count

of crimes With that wild oath.” She rendered answer

high : “ Not so, nor once alone ; a thousand times

I would be born and die.

LII.

“ Single I grew, like some green plant, whose root

Creeps to the garden water-pipes beneath, Feeding the flower: but ere my flower to fruit

Changed, I was ripe for death.

LIII.

“ My God, my land, my father—these did move

Me from my bliss of life, that Nature gave, Lowered softly with a threefold cord of love

Down to a silent grave.

LIV.

“And I went mourning, ‘No fair Hebrew boy

Shall smile away my maiden blame among The Hebrew mothers,'--emptied of all joy,

Leaving the dance and song.

LV.

• Leaving the olive-gardens far below,

Leaving the promise of my bridal bower, The valleys of grape-loaded vines that glow

Beneath the battled tower.

LVI.

“ The light white cloud swam over us.

Anon We heard the lion roaring from his den; We saw the large white stars rise one by one,

Or, from the darkened glen,

LVII.

· Saw God divide the night with flying flame,

And thunder on the everlasting hills.
I heard Him, for He spake, and grief became

A solemn scorn of ills.

LVIII.

• When the next moon was rolled into the sky,

Strength came to me that equalled my desire. How beautiful a thing it was to die

For God and for my sire !

LIX.

" It comforts me in this one thought to dwell,

That I subdued me to my father's will ; Because the kiss he gave me, ere I fell,

Sweetens the spirit still.

LX.

" Moreover, it is written that my race

Hewed Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer

On Arnon unto Minneth.” Here her face

Glowed, as I looked at her.

LXI.

She locked her lips : she left me where I stood :

Glory to God,” she sang, and past afar, Thridding the sombre boskage of the wood,

Toward the morning-star.

LXII.

Losing her carol I stood pensively,

As one that from a casement leans his head, When midnight bells cease ringing suddenly,

And the old year is dead.

LXIII. 5 Alas! alas !” a low voice, full of care, Murmured beside me;

66 Turn and look on me: I am that Rosamond, whom men call fair,

If what I was I be.

LXIV.

“ Would I had been some maiden coarse and poor!

O me! that I should ever see the light! Those dragon eyes of angered Eleanor

Do hunt me, day and night.”

LXV.

She ceased in tears, fallen from hope and trust :

To whom the Egyptian: “O, you tamely died ! You should have clung to Fulvia's waist, and thrust

The dagger through her side.”

LXVI.

With that sharp sound the white dawn's creeping

beams,

Stolen to my brain, dissolved the mystery Of folded sleep. The captain of my dreams

Ruled in the eastern sky.