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The blessed
damozel leaned out
From the gold bar of Heaven;
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters stilled
at even;
She had three lilies in her hand,
And the
stars in her hair were seven.
Her robe, ungirt
from clasp to hem,
No wrought flowers did adorn,
But a white rose of Mary's gift,
For service meetly
worn;
Her hair that lay along her back
Was yellow
like ripe corn.
Herseemed she scarce had been a
day
One of God's choristers;
The wonder was not
yet quite gone
From that still look of hers;
Albeit, to them she left, her day
Had counted as ten
years.
(To one, it is ten years of years.
...Yet now, and in this place,
Surely she leaned o'er
me -her hair
Fell all about my face...
Nothing:
the autumn-fall of leaves.
The whole year sets
apace.)
It was the rampart of God's house
That
she was standing on;
By God built over the sheer
depth
The which is Space begun;
So high, that
looking downward thence
She scarce could see the sun.
It lies in Heaven, across the flood
Of ether, as
a bridge.
Beneath, the tides of day and night
With
flame and darkness ridge
The void, as low as where
this earth
Spins like a fretful midge.
Around
her, lovers, newly met
Mid deathless love's acclaims,
Spoke evermore among themselves
Their
heart-remembered names;
And the souls mounting up to
God
Went by her like thin flames.
And still
she bowed herself and stooped
Out of the circling
charm;
Until her bosom must have made
The bar she
leaned on warm,
And the lilies lay as if asleep
Along her bended arm.
From the fixed place of
Heaven she saw
Time like a pulse shake fierce
Through all the worlds. Her gaze still strove
Within
the gulf to pierce
Its path; and now she spoke as
when
The stars sang in their spheres.
The sun
was gone now; the curled moon
Was like a little
feather
Fluttering far down the gulf; and now
She
spoke through the still weather.
Her voice was like
the voice the stars
Had when they sang together.
(Ah sweet! Even now, in that bird's song,
Strove
not her accents there,
Fain to be hearkened? When
those bells
Possessed the midday air,
Strove not
her steps to reach my side
Down all the echoing
stair?)
"I wish that he were come to me,
For
he will come," she said.
"Have I not prayed in
Heaven? -on earth,
Lord, Lord, has he not prayed?
Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
And shall I
feel afraid?
"When round his head the aureole
clings,
And he is clothed in white,
I'll take his
hand and go with him
To the deep wells of light;
As unto a stream we will step down,
And bathe there
in God's sight.
"We two will stand beside that
shrine,
Occult, withheld, untrod,
Whose lamps are
stirred continually
With prayer sent up to God;
And see our old prayers, granted, melt
Each like a
little cloud.
"We two will lie i' the shadow of
That living mystic tree
Within whose secret growth
the Dove
Is sometimes felt to be,
While every leaf
that His plumes touch
Saith His Name audibly.
"And I myself will teach to him,
I myself, lying so,
The songs I sing here; with his voice
Shall pause in,
hushed and slow,
And find some knowledge at each
pause,
Or some new thing to know."
(Alas! we
two, we two, thou sayst!
Yea, one wast thou with me
That once of old. But shall God lift
To endless unity
The soul whose likeness with thy soul
Was but its
love for thee?)
"We two," she said, "will seek
the groves
Where the lady Mary is,
With her five
handmaidens, whose names
Are five sweet symphonies,
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
Margaret and Rosalys.
"Circlewise sit they, with bound locks
And
foreheads garlanded;
Into the fine cloth white like
flame
Weaving the golden thread,
To fashion the
birth-robes for them
Who are just born, being dead.
"He shall fear, haply, and be dumb:
Then will I
lay my cheek
To his, and tell about our love,
Not
once abashed or weak:
And the dear Mother will
approve
My pride, and let me speak.
"Herself
shall bring us, hand in hand,
To Him round Whom all
souls
Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads
Bowed with their aureoles:
And angels meeting us
shall sing
To their citherns and citoles.
"There will I ask of Christ the Lord
Thus much for
him and me: -
Only to live as once on earth
With
Love, -only to be,
As then awhile, for ever now
Together, I and he."
She gazed and listened and
then said,
Less sad of speech than mild, -
"All
this is when he comes." She ceased.
The light
thrilled towards her, filled
With angels in strong
level flight.
Her eyes prayed, and she smiled.
(I saw her smile.) But soon their path
Was vague
in distant spheres:
And then she cast her arms along
The golden barriers,
And laid her face between her
hands,
And wept. (I heard her tears.)
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