THE LETTERS.

I.

STILL on the tower stood the vane,

A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air,

I peer'd athwart the chancel pane
And saw the altar cold and bare.

A clog of lead was round my feet,
A band of pain across my brow;
'Cold altar, Heaven and earth shall meet
Before you hear my marriage vow.'

II.

I turn'd and humm'd a bitter song

That mock'd the wholesome human heart,

And then we met in wrath and wrong,

We met, but only meant to part.

Full cold my greeting was and dry;
She faintly smiled, she hardly moved ;

I saw with half-unconscious eye

She wore the colours I approved.

III.

She took the little ivory chest,

With half a sigh she turn'd the key, Then raised her head with lips comprest, And gave my letters back to me.

And gave the trinkets and the rings,

My gifts, when gifts of mine could please;

As looks a father on the things

Of his dead son, I look'd on these.

IV.

She told me all her friends had said;

I raged against the public liar;

She talk'd as if her love were dead,

But in my words were seeds of fire. 'No more of love; your sex is known : I never will be twice deceived.

Henceforth I trust the man alone,

The woman cannot be believed.

V.

'Thro' slander, meanest spawn of Hell—
And women's slander is the worst,
And you, whom once I lov'd so well,
Thro' you, my life will be accurst.'

I spoke with heart, and heat and force,
I shook her breast with vague alarms-
Like torrents from a mountain source

We rush'd into each other's arms.

VI.

We parted: sweetly gleam'd the stars,

And sweet the vapour-braided blue,

Low breezes fann'd the belfry bars,

As homeward by the church I drew. The very graves appear'd to smile,

So fresh they rose in shadow'd swells; 'Dark porch,' I said, ' and silent aisle,

There comes a sound of marriage bells.

THE VISION OF SIN.

I.

I HAD a vision when the night was late :

A youth came riding toward a palace-gate.

He rode a horse with wings, that would have

flown,

But that his heavy rider kept him down.
And from the palace came a child of sin,
And took him by the curls, and led him in,
Where sat a company with heated eyes,
Expecting when a fountain should arise :
A sleepy light upon their brows and lips-
As when the sun, a crescent of eclipse,

Dreams over lake and lawn, and isles and

capes