Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ALLEGRA AND TRISTITIA, by ANNA BUNSTON DE BARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ALLEGRA AND TRISTITIA, by                    
First Line: Tristitia, the dark, the pale
Last Line: For evermore.
Subject(s): Hearts; Love; Slavery; Serfs


TRISTITIA, the dark, the pale,
Walking in night's solemnity,
Wearing the midnight's mystery
For coif and veil,

Stole all my heart away from me.
I loved her languor and her tears,
And served for her through seven years
Of slavery.

And then I seemed to clasp my prize,
And triumphed all the bridal night,
Until the over hasty light
Revealed her eyes.

Alas! 'twas not Tristitia,
'Twas not the bride I thought to see,
Only Allegra lay by me—
For Rachel, Leah.

Yet had she seemed to lack no grace
Until I saw those purblind eyes,
Until the daylight taught me sighs,
Showed me her face.

"She is the elder," so they said,
"Let all her rites be duly done
Then may Tristitia be won,
Then Rachel wed."

I won those eyes of strange desire,
Those eyes like wells, upon whose brink
A man may lean and drink, and drink,
Nor ever tire.

But now the spurned, the courted bride
Have gone—the happiness that failed,
And the sorrow that prevailed,
Alike have died.

Both women bare tall sons to me,
And God shall light Allegra's eyes
As when the summer suns arise
On Galilee.

My pilgrimage is almost o'er,
Tristitia hath made me wise,
But lay me where Allegra lies
For evermore.





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