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the wrecked life.
As flowed its life to feed another's life!
And in the unbroken stillness of her voice,
Here was no tremulous and yearning tone,
Such as oft stirs the heart with echoes deep
Of loving welcomes and heart-wrung farewells!
And since that scroll there was a deeper shade—
A something of endurance and self-scorn
Around her—proud endurance blent with shame.
A chained captive might look thus, if doomed
To suffer in the presence of a foe. Was this remorse?
And with the swan-like plumage and soft down
Of her pure woman's heart, was she enforced
To satiate his serpent-sting? None knew.
And thus she lived. Perchance this lonely life
Was not all sorrow;—none can ever know.
The stars shine ever brightest unto one
Beneath whose toiling feet are arid sands.
The Ghebir's faith arose in burning wastes.
And when no flowers bloom round us, or beneath,
We gaze where piercing and eternal burn
The gentle lustre of the Sister Stars—
Steadfast Arcturus, with his solemn brow,
And armed Orion, with his blood-red sword.
But suddenly she grew more sad, more pale.
And in the unbroken stillness of her voice,
Here was no tremulous and yearning tone,
Such as oft stirs the heart with echoes deep
Of loving welcomes and heart-wrung farewells!
And since that scroll there was a deeper shade—
A something of endurance and self-scorn
Around her—proud endurance blent with shame.
A chained captive might look thus, if doomed
To suffer in the presence of a foe. Was this remorse?
And with the swan-like plumage and soft down
Of her pure woman's heart, was she enforced
To satiate his serpent-sting? None knew.
And thus she lived. Perchance this lonely life
Was not all sorrow;—none can ever know.
The stars shine ever brightest unto one
Beneath whose toiling feet are arid sands.
The Ghebir's faith arose in burning wastes.
And when no flowers bloom round us, or beneath,
We gaze where piercing and eternal burn
The gentle lustre of the Sister Stars—
Steadfast Arcturus, with his solemn brow,
And armed Orion, with his blood-red sword.
But suddenly she grew more sad, more pale.
