forestall His rod: What! and so loseThe strength which comes by suffering? Well, if griefBe gain, mine’s double—fleeing thus the snareOf yon luxurious and unnerving down,And widowed from mine Eden. And why widowed?Because they tell me, love is of the flesh,And that’s our house-bred foe, the adder in our bosoms,Which warmed to life, will sting us. They must know—I do confess mine ignorance, O Lord!Mine earnest will these painful limbs may prove.. . . . .And yet I swore to love him.—So I doNo more than I have sworn. Am I to blameIf God makes wedlock that, which if it be not,It were a shame for modest lips to speak it,And silly doves are better mates than we?And yet our love is Jesus’ due,—and all thingsWhich share with Him divided emperyAre snares and idols—‘To love, to cherish, and to obey!’. . . . .O deadly riddle! Rent and twofold life!O cruel troth! To keep thee or to break theeAlike seems sin! O thou beloved tempter,

[Turning toward the bed.]

Who first didst teach me love, why on thyselfFrom God divert thy lesson? Wilt provoke Him?What if mine heavenly Spouse in jealous ireShould smite mine earthly spouse? Have I two husbands?The words are horror—yet they are orthodox!

[Rises and goes to the window.]

How many many brows of happy loversThe fragrant lips of night even now are kissing!Some wandering hand in hand through arched lanes;Some listening for loved voices at the lattice;Some steeped in dainty dreams of untried bliss;Some nestling soft and deep in well-known arms,Whose touch makes sleep rich life. The very birdsWithin their nests are wooing! So much love!All seek their mates, or finding, rest in peace;The earth seems one vast bride-bed. Doth God tempt us?Is’t all a veil to blind our eyes from him?A fire-fly at the candle. ’Tis love leads him;Love’s light, and light is love: O Eden! Eden!Eve was a virgin there, they say; God knows.Must all this be as it had never been?Is it all a fleeting type of higher love?Why, if the lesson’s pure, is not the teacherPure also? Is it my shame to feel no shame?Am I more clean, the more I scent uncleanness?Shall base emotions picture Christ’s embrace?Rest, rest, torn heart! Yet where? in earth or heaven?Still, from out the bright abysses, gleams our Lady’s silver footstool,Still the light-world sleeps beyond her, though the night-clouds fleet below.Oh that I were walking, far above, upon that dappled pavement,Heaven’s floor, which is the ceiling of the dungeon where we lie.Ah, what blessed Saints might meet me, on that platform, sliding silent,Past us in its airy travels, angel-wafted, mystical!They perhaps might tell me all things, 

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