Poems (Hardy)/A fable of amethysts
A FABLE OF AMETHYSTS
SERAPHAEL wooed a woman angel fair, And laid his life before her fateful feet. She laughed,—her laughter was most sweet,—And tossed him back from out her twisted hairA blood-red rose,—his hand had placed it there;— "Take back your rose, yourself, and go repeat This tale," she said, "to her whom next you meet;For such fine playthings she perchance may care."And thus his heart's great fervor won away, She threw aside as lightly as his flower,For him, this made a lifetime's bitter day; For her, the triumph of an idle hour;For him life paused, its currents turned astray, Love died and Hate seized all her princely dower.
II
Then fell Seraphael's tears upon the ground Across the purple flower he held and kissed; Then rained the purple drops like hail through mistAnd fell pale Muriel's woful feet around;Her pale and paler growing hair unbound, That was of shredded gold a wondrous twist,Her cheeks, her azure eyes, so unprofound, All sank dissolved and froze to amethyst.
MORAL
What if my fable be in thought absurd? Two seeds of truth lie in its crabbed core;And man may read anew what he has heard Since woman's face its blush of beauty wore;And woman feel again the truth which stirred Her heart at Eden's closed and flaming door.