Part 11 (1/2)

G.o.d knows that if, instead of me, There had been any other she, She would have done the same,

X

”Poor me! Of course the whole disgrace, In spite of reason, falls on me: And so all women of my race, In pure right, shall be reason-free, In every case.

”It shall not be in power of man To bind them to their own contentions; But each shall speak, as speak she can, And start anew with fresh inventions, Where she began.

”And so shall they be dearer still; For man shall ne'er suspect in them The plucking of the fatal stem, That brought him all his ill.

XI

”And when hereafter--as there must, Since He, that made us, so hath sworn-- From that whereof we are, the dust, And whereunto we shall return In higher trust--

”There spring a grand and countless race, Replenis.h.i.+ng this vast possession, Till life, hath won a larger s.p.a.ce Than death, by quick and fair succession Of health and grace;

”They too shall find as I have found The grief, that lifts its head on high, A dewy bud the sun shall dry-- But not while on the ground.

XII

”Then men shall love their wives again, Allowing for the frailer kind, Content to keep the heart's Amen, Content to own the turns of mind Beyond their ken.

”And wives shall in their lords be blest, Their higher sense of right perceiving (When possible) with love their test; Exalting, solacing, believing All for the test.

”And for the best shall all things be, If G.o.d once more will s.h.i.+ne around, And lift my husband from the ground, And teach him to lift me.”

_New faith inspired the first of wives, She smiles, and drooping hope revives; She scorns a hundred years of woe% And binds her hair, because the breezes blow._

THE MEETING

I

The wind is hushed, the moon is bright, More stars on heaven than may be told; Young flowers are coying with the light, That softly tempts them to unfold, And trust the night.

What form comes bounding from above Down Arafa, the mountain lonely, Afraid to scare its long-lost dove, Yet swift as joy--”It can be only, Only my love!”

What shape is that--too fair to leave On Arafa, the mountain lone?

So trembling, and so faint--”My own, It must be my own Eve!”

II

As when the mantled heavens display The glory of the morning glow, And spread the mountain heights with day, And bid the clouds and shadows go Trooping away,

The Spirit of the Lord arose, And made the earth and heaven to quiver, And scattered all his h.e.l.lish foes, And deigned his good stock to deliver From all their woes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 118.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 120.]