Page:Poems Jackson.djvu/151

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TWO LOVES.
103
"His glory is my soul's estate;
Breathless with love I watch and wait
The hours of his triumphant fate,
Knowing that far the greater part
Of all his joy in all his fame
Surrenders to my whispered name
In secret places of his heart.

"And oh! I love my love again
With love incredulous of pain,
Because I know my beauty's chain
Binds him so sure, binds him so fast.
I know there is not one swift bliss
Which men may know, that he can miss,
Or say of it that it is past."

This was her song, who sat in sun;
It seemed it never would be done,
Unless its joy should all outrun
Slow speech, and fall of its own weight;
As fountains their sweet source recall,
And, pausing sudden, break and fall,
In murmur inarticulate.

The other song, more soft, more low,
Out of the shade came floating slow,
As autumn leaves swim to and fro
In golden seas of sunny air.
Her meek hands on her bosom laid,
Sign of the cross unwitting made;
The woman was not young nor fair.