THEY faced each other: Topaz-brown And lambent burned her eyes and shot Sharp flame at his of amethyst. -- "I hate you! Go, and be forgot As death forgets!" their glitter @3hissed@1 (So @3seemed@1 it) in their hatred. Ho! Dared any mortal front her so? -- Tempestuous eyebrows knitted down -- Tense nostril, mouth -- no muscle slack, -- And black -- the suffocating black -- The stifling blackness of her frown! Ah! but the lifted face of her! And the twitched lip and tilted head! Yet he did neither wince nor stir, -- Only -- his hands clenched; and, instead Of words, he answered with a stare That stammered not in aught it said, As might his voice if trusted there. And what -- what spake his steady gaze? -- Was there a look that harshly fell To scoff her? -- or a syllable Of anger? -- or the bitter phrase That myrrhs the honey of love's lips, Or curdles blood as poison-drips? What made their breasts to heave and swell As billows under bows of ships In broken seas on stormy days? We may not know -- nor @3they@1 indeed -- What mercy found them in their need. A sudden sunlight smote the gloom; And round about them swept a breeze, With faint breaths as of clover-bloom; A bird was heard, through drone of bees, -- Then, far and clear and eerily, A child's voice from an orchard-tree -- Then laughter, sweet as the perfume Of lilacs, could the hearing see. And he -- O Love! he fed thy name On bruised kisses, while her dim Deep eyes, with all their inner flame, Like drowning gems were turned on him. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LEFT-HANDED POEM by JAMES GALVIN GOD AND MY COUNTRY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS IN MEMORIAM (EASTER 1915) by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS RING FROM THE RIM OF THE GLASS, BOYS by JOHN CLINTON ANTHONY OUT OF THE SHADOW by MARGARET FAIRLESS BARBER BY AN INLAND LAKE by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE |