Poems (Hardy)/Elian gray
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS
ELIAN GRAY
I
YEARS of lone length, a joyless face,— Your picture, Elian Gray:But where you sit 'mid faded leaves Sat Clare one far-off May.
II
The flowers down showering on us both Made fair the checkered shade;She hoarded them in her two hands And sighed that they should fade.
III
Yet sighing smiled with lips content In beauty so complete,My heart, re-echoing what she felt, Lay mutely at her feet.
IV
She saw not that I loved her,—no; Her soul was slumbering yet;A child of nature, simple, true,— Would she my face forget?
V
We parted, and her troubled eyes, Half-questioning, looked in mine,With something in her lingering glance I could not then divine.
VI
They say she grew to fair estate Of noble womanhood:But strangely grave; and unaware That love was life's best good.
VII
They say she looked as one who waits A step that would not come.When other lips spoke praise of me She smiled, but hers were dumb.
VIII
Ah, wretched, that my stupid heart And inadvertent eyeRelinquished all that love could give Through doubt's inconstancy!
IX
Doubt, not of her, but doubt of God, And feeble faith that HeDesigned for men much earthly joy, And, least of all, for me.
X
This is her grave; the ripe fruit falls Where blossoms fell before;This is her grave; here all paths end For me, forevermore.