VIOLIN.
Music of all kisses thrillingly printed,
Breath of all sighs, with fettered wings flutteringly beating,
Pulse of my heart’s pain,
Quivering nerve of my love’s longing,
Fancy’s interpreter,
Voice of the world’s forever unspoken
Wine-press of feeling,
Dream-wizard;
Yearning, yearning, yearning; passionately, passionately, passionately crying;
Laughing, rejoicing, smiling, teasing.
Scream of the eagle-hearts,
Upward, upward, fiercely aspiring;
Search of the north-wind in dark pines plaining,
Wailing, mournfully moaning;
Of trade-sea-breezes, palm-palms dashing
Sharply, brightly, under hot suns glittering;
Sound of the little brooks, in wood-hollows, mossy,
Gurgling with hidden laughter;
Fairy-foot dancer of air-drops tinkling.
Word of the thunder-thought,
Of midnight’s weird silences,
Moon-drawn mysteries,
Sun-birth ecstasies,
Noon’s manhood,
Evening’s Madonna,
Night’s unfolding—
Of the great, wide ocean, wave-tossed, restless, restless forever.
Dreams, visions invoking:—
Of lover’s eyes embracing, long, long mingling, soul-satisfied, forgetting all else, restfully resting each in dear depths of other:
Of heart-drawn lips, tenderly, thrillingly touching, pressing,
Man upon woman’s growing, glowing,
Strong hand under beautiful neck,
Breath-blown billow of silken bosom,
Waves of tresses on white pillow floating,
Souls at one, merging,
Life’s true bloom,
Heaven the chamber:
Of shell-pink babies, softly sleeping,
Under mother-eyes dewy with yearning,
Mother-lips lullabys crooning,
Unspeakable love overshading, fragrant,
Devotedly down-drooping, bending,
Brooding, brooding.
Pair, peace, aspiration, vibration, Nature!—
O violin! O violin!—
Free spirit in bonds,
Cry incarnate,
Prophet of the over-coming future,
Seer of the ever-beyond, blue, blue distances,
Life’s melodious oracle,—
I love thee,
Thou tongue of the word ineffable!
MAGDALEN.
Her flushed face drooping in her hands doth dwell,
Her beauteous flanks sob-shaken past control,
Her tear-wet bosoms heaving with the whole,
And over all the spikenard’s orient smell.
Speak quickly, Christ!—her tears erase her sin;
Sweet Type of Peace, thou canst not her condemn!
And lo! no man among us dares to stone!
“Weep not! Go forth!—new paths thy feet begin;
Thy foes are dumb, my test confoundeth them;
By love you fell, by wiser loves atone.”