Chapter II

It is not well for me to hear
That song's appealing melody:
The pain of loss comes all too near,
Through it, to me.

The loss of her whose love looks through
The mist death's hand hath hung between--
Within the shadow of the yew
Her grave is green.

Ah, dream that vanished long ago!
Oh, anguish of remembered tears!
And shadow of unlifted woe
Athwart the years!

That haunt the sad rooms of my days,
As keepsakes of unperished love,
Where pale the memory of her face
Hangs, framed above.

This olden song of love and sleep,
She used to sing, is now a spell
That opens doors within the deep
Of my heart's hell,

In music making visible
One soul-assertive memory,
That steals unto my side to tell
My loss to me.

AT VESPERS

High up in the organ-story
A girl stands, slim and fair;
And touched with the casement's glory
Gleams out her radiant hair.

The young priest kneels at the altar,
Then lifts the Host above;
And the psalm intoned from the psalter
Is pure with patient love.

A sweet bell chimes; and a censer
Swings, gleaming, in the gloom;
The candles glimmer and denser
Rolls up the pale perfume.

Then high in the organ choir
A voice of crystal soars,
Of patience and soul's desire,
That suffers and adores.

And out of the altar's dimness
An answering voice doth swell,
Of passion that cries from the grimness
And anguish of its own hell.

High up in the organ-story
One kneels with a girlish grace;
And, touched with the vesper glory,
Lifts her madonna face.

One stands at the cloudy altar,
A form bowed down and thin;
The text of the psalm in the psalter
He chants is sorrow and sin.

* * * * *

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| Transcriber notes: |
| |
| P. 61. Stanza 'X' should be 'IX', changed to 'IX'. |
| P. 178. Added end quotation and the end of the stanza. |
| P. 274. Added opening quote to "My heart is full of lightness!". |
| Fixed various punctuation. |
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