SOLITUDE.
87
"O woe of mine! O woe of thine
O woe of endless thirst!
O woe for the Amreeta wine,
By fate and thee accurst!"
O woe of endless thirst!
O woe for the Amreeta wine,
By fate and thee accurst!"
The knight spake words of sore dismay
But her face was white like stone;
She saw him mount and ride away,
And made no moan.
But her face was white like stone;
She saw him mount and ride away,
And made no moan.
The wind blew east, the wind blew west,
The airs from sepulchres;
No royal heart in all of them
So dead as hers!
The airs from sepulchres;
No royal heart in all of them
So dead as hers!
SOLITUDE.
"
SOLITUDE," I said, "sweet Solitude!
I follow fast; I kneel to find thy trace;
I listen low in every secret place;
I lay rough hand on eager human lips;
I set aside all near companionships;
I know thou hast a subtler, rarer good.
O Priestess, how shalt thou be found and wooed?"
I tracked her where she passed in trackless fields;
I trod her path where footprint had not staid
In sunless woods; I stopped to hark where laid
Her very shadow its great bound of light
And gloom in lifeless arctic day and night;
And where, to tropic sun, mid-ocean yields.
Its silent, windless waves, like mirror-shields;
SOLITUDE," I said, "sweet Solitude!I follow fast; I kneel to find thy trace;
I listen low in every secret place;
I lay rough hand on eager human lips;
I set aside all near companionships;
I know thou hast a subtler, rarer good.
O Priestess, how shalt thou be found and wooed?"
I tracked her where she passed in trackless fields;
I trod her path where footprint had not staid
In sunless woods; I stopped to hark where laid
Her very shadow its great bound of light
And gloom in lifeless arctic day and night;
And where, to tropic sun, mid-ocean yields.
Its silent, windless waves, like mirror-shields;
