Chapter II: Averlaine and Arkeld

1.

ARKELD: Oh, why did you lift your eyes to mine? Oh, why did you lift your drooping head?

AVERLAINE: The tangled threads of the fates entwine Our hearts that follow as children led.

ARKELD: From the utmost ends of the earth we came, As star moves starward through wildering night.

AVERLAINE: Our souls have mingled as flame with flame, Yea, they have mingled as light with light.

ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!

AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!

ARKELD: The stars in their courses move through the sky Unswerving, unheeding, cold and blind.

AVERLAINE: Why did you linger nor pass me by Where the cross-roads meet in the ways that wind?

ARKELD: I saw your eyes from the dusk of your hair Flame out with sorrow and yearning love.

AVERLAINE: And I, who wandered with grey despair, Looking up, saw heaven in blossom above.

ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!

AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!

ARKELD: May we not go as we came, alone, Unto the ends of the earth anew?

AVERLAINE: May we draw afresh from the rose new-blown The golden sunlight, the crystal dew?

ARKELD: Yea, love between us has bloomed as a rose Out of the desert under our feet.

AVERLAINE: May we forget how the red heart glows, Forget that the dew on the petals is sweet?

ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!

AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!

ARKELD: Have the ages brought us together that we Might tremble, start at shadows, and cry?

AVERLAINE: Yea, it has been, and ever will be Till Sorrow be slain or Love's self die.

ARKELD: Stronger than Sorrow is Love; and Hate, The brother of Love, shall end our Sorrow.

AVERLAINE: The Shadow is strong with the strength of Fate, And, slain, would rise from the grave to-morrow.

ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!

AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow for ever between!

2.

AVERLAINE: Yea, we must part, and tear with ruthless hands The golden web wherein, too late, Love strove To weave us joy and bind us heart to heart.

ARKELD: Yea, we must part, and strew on desert-sands Petal by petal all the rose of Love, And part for ever where the cross-ways part.

AVERLAINE: Yea, we must part, and never turn our eyes From strange horizons, desolate and far, Though Love cry ever: "Turn but once, sad heart!"

ARKELD: Yea, we must part, and under alien skies Must follow after some cold, gleaming star, And roam, as north and south winds roam, apart.

AVERLAINE: Yea, we must part, ere Love be grown too strong And we too helpless to resist his might; While each may go with pure, unshamed heart.

ARKELD: Yea, we must part; and though we do Love wrong, He will the more subdue us in our flight, And hold us each more surely his, apart.