Page:Poems Piatt.djvu/104

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90
ENCHANTED.
On the heights the hail would beat,
In the thorns would sink the snow,
And the chasms were weird with sound;
Yet the years would come and go:
"Somewhere there is something sweet,
And some time I shall know.

"There is a land close by,
A land in reach of my arm;_
It is mine from shore to sea;—
There the nightingales do fly,
There the flush of the rose is warm:
I shall take it by and by.

"But the shape that guards the gate,
Where my mirror waits to show
How beautiful I am,
Oh, he makes me loth to go.
I wait, and I wait, and I wait,—
Through fear of him, I know.

"But who breaks this charm of breath
Enchantment himself must wear.
Two from each other shrink
In the freezing dark, and stare: . . . .
Your kiss for my kiss, O Death!
Each makes the other fair."