Ambarvalia/Burbidge/The Question
THE QUESTION.
O Minnie, which are thy true charms?
Now heavenly, now human,
Say, shall I fold thee in my arms
An Angel or a Woman?
A Spirit first before my sight,
Before my fancy dancing,
Thou shonest, like a water-light
Retreating and advancing.
More close I looked: and to a Child
The splendour seemed to steady;
A thing that breathed, a thing that smiled,
Bespoke my heart already.
Ah, would it speak?—And if it spake
Some speech past our conventions,—
The tongue in which the lightnings break
Of Angel apprehensions?
I listened, and I heard its tongue,
The tongue of mortal fancy,
Of Earth's affections ever young,
And human innocency.
I heard; my heart began to melt,
And farther inquest urging
My eyes—that dared not see it—felt
The bosom of the Virgin.
Ah, was it then a human breast?
Within it did the treasures
Of womanhood lie unconfest,
The sorrows and the pleasures?
And all the Woman kind and warm
My heart was busy tracing,
When gleams of glory crossed the form,
With lovelier face defacing.
I saw—what was it that I saw?—
Some Excellence supernal
That, scorning the material law,
Shone by the sempiternal?
I know not, but since then I see
In mutual inclusion
Two diverse Natures both in thee,
A variance, a confusion!
Now earthly all—of that sweet earth
That owns of Heaven reversion,
Thou sittest by a human hearth;
Then comes the re-assertion,
And some refulgence of the sky
And viewless realms above it
Envelops thee—and I stand by
And fear it while I love it.
O Minnie, which are thy true charms,
The heavenly or the human?
O shall I fold thee in my arms,
An Angel or a Woman?