Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems/Jamais

by James Ryder Randall

JAMAIS

Early love is swift and golden,
Fond and foolish, too, perchance,
But ’tis haloed by the olden,
Golden moonlight of romance.
Once it’s ripe aurelia bound me,
Brimful with the birds of May;
By the ruins that surround me,
It shall bind no more—Jamais!

Once I felt the blue above thee,
Peri-peopled by thine art;
But ’twas death in life to love thee,
Woman of the diamond heart!
Thou hast sown the sky with ashes,
Made its constellations grey,
While the wind-gust knells and gnashes
Dirge-like to the night—“Jamais!”

I was rich in pure affection,
Passions chastened and alert—
But my rival had perfection
In the opulence of—dirt.
He but wooed thee to deceive thee,
Won thee, only to betray;
Shall that shadow ever leave thee?
Never while I live—Jamais!

Time is just, and Fate’s surrender
Comes like chrism and myrrh to me.
He is quelled in coffined splendor,
Hearsed in marble mimicry.
I—though Arctic years have chilled me,
Thrust my stature in the day;
But the voice that erst has thrilled me,
Thrills no more—Jamais! Jamais!

Though with purpose unbenighted,
Though with intellect unshorn,
Still my spirit maimed and blighted,
Bleeds beyond its battle morn.
Herbless deserts demon-haunted,
Mark the fury of the fray,
But that spirit, still undaunted,
Bends to thee—Jamais! Jamais!

Woman! I shall cling beside thee
As a marvel in thy way;
While I scorn, I shall deride thee
With this requiem of “Jamais!”
Sleep—with adders on thy pillow—
Wake—but spectral shapes of clay,
Flocking from the cloud and billow,
Goad thee with—“Jamais!” “Jamais!”