IV
When for an hour we met (to call it meeting
Barred by the bleak ice of society
From even the lover's glance, the lover's greeting.
The intonation that means ecstasy!)
One ray of saddest gladness lit the dusk:
This—that I saw you pale and suffering,
A goddess armed with myrrh instead of musk,
With lips too cold to pray, too dry to sing.
For by that sigh I knew the adorable
Truth, that you wept in secret over me.
Your silence was the dumb despair of hell;
Who read it right read love. Strange cruelty,
That who would die for you, sweet murderess,
Should find his comfort in your bitterness!
Barred by the bleak ice of society
From even the lover's glance, the lover's greeting.
The intonation that means ecstasy!)
One ray of saddest gladness lit the dusk:
This—that I saw you pale and suffering,
A goddess armed with myrrh instead of musk,
With lips too cold to pray, too dry to sing.
For by that sigh I knew the adorable
Truth, that you wept in secret over me.
Your silence was the dumb despair of hell;
Who read it right read love. Strange cruelty,
That who would die for you, sweet murderess,
Should find his comfort in your bitterness!
— 38 —
