Brand.
[Coming a step nearer.]
Youthful maiden, weigh it well.
In this mountain-prison pent,
Oversoar'd by crag and fell,
In this dim and yawning rent,
Life henceforward shall be gray
As an ebbing autumn-day.
Agnes.
Gloom appals no more; afar
Through the cloud-wrack gleams a star.
Brand.
Know, that I am stern to crave,
<g>All</g> or <g>Nothing</g> I will have;
If that call you disobey,
You have flung your life away.
No abatement in distress,
And for sin no tenderness,—
If life's service God refuse,
Life you joyfully must lose.
Einar.
Fly this wild insensate play!
Spurn the sullen Doomer's sway;
Live the life you know you may!
Brand.
At the crossway standst thou:—choose.
[Goes.
Einar.
Choose the stillness or the strife!
For the choice to <g>go</g> or <g>stay</g>
Is a choice of calm or fray,
