M ARY
When Stuart reigned, ere yet began
The struggle with the Puritan,
Ere King and Commons met for fight
O'er regal claim and chartered right, —
There fell a day when tidings spread
How for the royal marriage-bed
April had flowered; for surely then
Life was as blossom to man's ken
Around that birth; and who could see,
Where laughing courtiers stooped the knee,
How in the days so soon to be
Lay pains, and penalties, and dread?
And so through chambers where more late
Her brother Charles encountered fate, —
Careless of how the seasons ran
Those toddling feet their race began,
And over hearts which paved a way
Balanced their weight with tender sway.
Her eyes the sunlight did absorb,
The spinning world became her orb
Of power — so fairy-like she lit
And played her little pranks on it;
And like a charioteer in chase,
Urging it still to swifter pace,
Cried to the rolling wheels below —
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
Two years, a spendthrift in her joy,
She made her father's Court a toy:
The wisest statesman was her fool,
A kingdom's rulers owned her rule
In laws delightful to obey,
When so like gossamer they lay
That by a breath goes blown away!
Alas, like giver and like gift!
Quick to alight, and quick to lift
And vanish from its fairy form
As snow-flake on the face of storm —
So came she and so passed: her feast
Of love, and life, and laughter ceased
All in a day; her little head
Down, down she laid upon a bed,
And tired of earth, rejecting care,
Fluttered her baby hands on air
And cried, in prophecy of woe,
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
With fluttered hands and words like wings,
Thus spake she her last soothsayings;
And on that head untouched by rime
Light-handed brothers, Death and Time,
Shook down a single flake of snow. —
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
Warm snowflake then lay kissed by cold,
While Earth her wintry message told;
— Ah! snowflake, look not here for thaw
Nor any sunshine that can draw
Thy sweetness out! Turn back and blow
Into those pleasant fields where grow,
With wide and dew-embracing eyes,
The waiting flowers of Paradise:
Into their hearts let fall thy snow! —
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
So runs the tale: of all her pains
And pleasures this alone remains, —
This wing-like cry, this answering word
To some remote and secret bird
That, gazing with prophetic eyes
From the bright bowers of Paradise,
Saw in the dreadful years ahead,
Joy withered, mirth disowned and dead,
And beauty disinherited.
So with a heart of grace made wise
To perils undiscerned by man,
Quick at that fluted note she flies
The coming of the Puritan!
The grief, the gallantry, the grace,
The ghosts of her ill-fated race
And all its pageantry of woe,
Here mingled for a moment show,
While to the ear that hearkens cries
The seer in the babe's disguise
(Of crowns, so soon to be laid low!),
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
Through the fixed slabs of mouldered tombs
This single blossom breaks and blooms:
Crowned with that cry, it passes hence
Immortal in its transience.
So with eternal waft of wing
Fleets over earth the breath of spring,
And through each mood in motion free
Reveals its immortality.
When Stuart reigned, ere yet began
The struggle with the Puritan,
Ere King and Commons met for fight
O'er regal claim and chartered right, —
There fell a day when tidings spread
How for the royal marriage-bed
April had flowered; for surely then
Life was as blossom to man's ken
Around that birth; and who could see,
Where laughing courtiers stooped the knee,
How in the days so soon to be
Lay pains, and penalties, and dread?
And so through chambers where more late
Her brother Charles encountered fate, —
Careless of how the seasons ran
Those toddling feet their race began,
And over hearts which paved a way
Balanced their weight with tender sway.
Her eyes the sunlight did absorb,
The spinning world became her orb
Of power — so fairy-like she lit
And played her little pranks on it;
And like a charioteer in chase,
Urging it still to swifter pace,
Cried to the rolling wheels below —
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
Two years, a spendthrift in her joy,
She made her father's Court a toy:
The wisest statesman was her fool,
A kingdom's rulers owned her rule
In laws delightful to obey,
When so like gossamer they lay
That by a breath goes blown away!
Alas, like giver and like gift!
Quick to alight, and quick to lift
And vanish from its fairy form
As snow-flake on the face of storm —
So came she and so passed: her feast
Of love, and life, and laughter ceased
All in a day; her little head
Down, down she laid upon a bed,
And tired of earth, rejecting care,
Fluttered her baby hands on air
And cried, in prophecy of woe,
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
With fluttered hands and words like wings,
Thus spake she her last soothsayings;
And on that head untouched by rime
Light-handed brothers, Death and Time,
Shook down a single flake of snow. —
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
Warm snowflake then lay kissed by cold,
While Earth her wintry message told;
— Ah! snowflake, look not here for thaw
Nor any sunshine that can draw
Thy sweetness out! Turn back and blow
Into those pleasant fields where grow,
With wide and dew-embracing eyes,
The waiting flowers of Paradise:
Into their hearts let fall thy snow! —
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
So runs the tale: of all her pains
And pleasures this alone remains, —
This wing-like cry, this answering word
To some remote and secret bird
That, gazing with prophetic eyes
From the bright bowers of Paradise,
Saw in the dreadful years ahead,
Joy withered, mirth disowned and dead,
And beauty disinherited.
So with a heart of grace made wise
To perils undiscerned by man,
Quick at that fluted note she flies
The coming of the Puritan!
The grief, the gallantry, the grace,
The ghosts of her ill-fated race
And all its pageantry of woe,
Here mingled for a moment show,
While to the ear that hearkens cries
The seer in the babe's disguise
(Of crowns, so soon to be laid low!),
— I go, I go! Away I go! —
Through the fixed slabs of mouldered tombs
This single blossom breaks and blooms:
Crowned with that cry, it passes hence
Immortal in its transience.
So with eternal waft of wing
Fleets over earth the breath of spring,
And through each mood in motion free
Reveals its immortality.