Fiddler's Farewell/Two Passionate Ones Part

by Leonora Speyer

Two Passionate Ones Part

Why stamp the sovereign fires out?
They would have burned themselves away,
Finally flickered red to gray.

Had you but let them lift and roar,
Scorch and consume you, whirl and dart,
Ember on ember as heart on heart!

What had divided the fiery dust,
Ashes of you, and ashes of you?
Pity, pity, impatient two!

Now you go reeling out of love—
Look, as you stumble on alone:
This is the way you would have gone!

Why not have walked it hand in hand,
One-time lovers and all-time friends?
Love has a hundred gentle ends.

Ends—and beyonds—oh ghosts of flames
That never lived, that never died,
Bitter and lean, unsatisfied—

These are the fires shall warm you now,
Sit and dream at them, dream and sigh;
These are the dead that cannot die.

Fires are meant to leap and fade.
Who are you to rule otherwise,
Monarchs with madness in your eyes?

Who are you to challenge change?
What, would you carve love's wings in stone?
Fling them your sky! Their course is their own!

Grieving impetuous passionate two—
Here was a feast on the white cloth spread,
Love was the wine, and liking the bread.

You drank and drank, but you ate no crumb;
Love was the wine, but ah, the bread,
Had you dipped it deep in the cup instead.

Pale-lipped lovers that taste the lees,
Dull, undrinkable, stale and flat,
How the good crust had sweetened these—
Pity you never thought of that!