THE QUEST (4) - Druckversion +- Sonett-Forum (https://sonett-archiv.com/forum) +-- Forum: Sonett-Archiv (https://sonett-archiv.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=126) +--- Forum: Sonette aus germanischen Sprachen (https://sonett-archiv.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=394) +---- Forum: Englische Sonette (https://sonett-archiv.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=818) +----- Forum: Autoren PQ (https://sonett-archiv.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=843) +------ Forum: Price, Herbert (https://sonett-archiv.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=968) +------ Thema: THE QUEST (4) (/showthread.php?tid=23073) |
THE QUEST (4) - ZaunköniG - 09.08.2014 THE QUEST I BLINDLY we seek through all the vernal years, And mostly fail because we cannot see The real behind the seeming entity ; Blindly we seek, protected by no fears Of sorrow and inevitable tears, Should our mischoice disturb the harmony That sings in love, as in the sunlit sea The organ music of the shining spheres Sings of divine attractions, that beget Beauty for ever ; yea, we find and take, And straightway all the agonies awake To haunt our spirits with their ceaseless fret ; Two lives that missed the bourne of love, must quake For ever in the deserts of regret. II AND when we wake our souls have touched despair, And reached the oozy bottom of the deep Where dead hopes lie, as in a broken heap The dreams of youth, that down the golden stair Tumbled to ruin wholly past repair Are gathered ; lo ! our eyes no longer weep Such numbing cold is round our hearts to keep The fountains hard however warm the air ; And now we brace our limbs to swim away Each from the other on the sundering waves, But cannot, since we are old custom's slaves, And marriage bonds we dare not thus essay To break ; we hold together till death saves, And only smile into the closing day. III THE woman pales, and the man glooms his brows, And both are sad for something gone awry ; Deep in their hearts, unseen by any eye The mischief seethes ; and both regret their vows On lonely pillows, when the silent house Stands blindly dumb beneath the starry sky ; The sobbing of their sorrow even cows The callous fates, and though no uttered cry Soul anguish bleeds in silence unto death Calls out of dreams across the senseless dark For pity and surcease of aching dole, Pain goes into the air with every breath Exhaled in sleep, and wild heart pulses mark The poignant griefs that wring each wasted soul. IV PERCHANCE no one or both along the way Will shine the face that should have crowned the quest While yet the dawn was like a rosy crest Upon the hills. Then will the soul obey New-roused emotions by a vision blessed With sudden light ? Then will the barren breast, So long the home of stale indifference, play Its part of love against the bitter sway Of memories that hurt ? Will the found face Smile life into the dull evasive eyes And help the soul to doff her memories That wore so long the mantle of disgrace ? Or will " too late " be like a wall to rise Full in the path which neither may displace ? |