The Germ: Thoughts towards Nature in Poetry, Literature and Art. Various

      About her window, at the dawn,

      From the vine's crooked boughs

      Birds chirupped an arouse:

      Flies, buzzing, strengthened with the morn;—

      She'll not hear them again

      At random strike the pane:

      No more upon the close-cut lawn,

      Her garment's sun-white hem

      Bend the prim daisy's stem,

      In walking forth to view what flowers are born.

      No more she'll watch the dark-green rings

      Stained quaintly on the lea,

      To image fairy glee;

      While thro' dry grass a faint breeze sings,

      And swarms of insects revel

      Along the sultry level:—

      No more will watch their brilliant wings,

      Now lightly dip, now soar,

      Then sink, and rise once more.

      My lady's death makes dear these trivial things.

      Within a huge tree's steady shade,

      When resting from our walk,

      How pleasant was her talk!

      Elegant deer leaped o'er the glade,

      Or stood with wide bright eyes,

      Staring a short surprise:

      Outside the shadow cows were laid,

      Chewing with drowsy eye

      Their cuds complacently:

      Dim for sunshine drew near a milking-maid.

      Rooks cawed and labored thro' the heat;

      Each wing-flap seemed to make

      Their weary bodies ache:

      The swallows, tho' so very fleet,

      Made breathless pauses there

      At something in the air:—

      All disappeared: our pulses beat

      Distincter throbs: then each

      Turned and kissed, without speech,—

      She trembling, from her mouth down to her feet.

      My head sank on her bosom's heave,

      So close to the soft skin

      I heard the life within.

      My forehead felt her coolly breathe,

      As with her breath it rose:

      To perfect my repose

      Her two arms clasped my neck. The eve

      Spread silently around,

      A hush along the ground,

      And all sound with the sunlight seemed to leave.

      By my still gaze she must have known

      The mighty bliss that filled

      My whole soul, for she thrilled,

      Drooping her face, flushed, on my own;

      I felt that it was such

      By its light warmth of touch.

      My lady was with me alone:

      That vague sensation brought

      More real joy than thought.

      I am without her now, truly alone.

      We had no heed of time: the cause

      Was that our minds were quite

      Absorbed in our delight,

      Silently blessed. Such stillness awes,

      And stops with doubt, the breath,

      Like the mute doom of death.

      I felt Time's instantaneous pause;

      An instant, on my eye

      Flashed all Eternity:—

      I started, as if clutched by wild beasts' claws,

      Awakened from some dizzy swoon:

      I felt strange vacant fears,

      With singings in my ears,

      And wondered that the pallid moon

      Swung round the dome of night

      With such tremendous might.

      A sweetness, like the air of June,

      Next paled me with suspense,

      A weight of clinging sense—

      Some hidden evil would burst on me soon.

      My lady's love has passed away,

      To know that it is so

      To me is living woe.

      That body lies in cold decay,

      Which held the vital soul

      When she was my life's soul.

      Bitter mockery it was to say—

      “Our souls are as the same:”

      My words now sting like shame;

      Her spirit went, and mine did not obey.

      It was as if a fiery dart

      Passed seething thro' my brain

      When I beheld her lain

      There whence in life she did not part.

      Her beauty by degrees,

      Sank, sharpened with disease:

      The heavy sinking at her heart

      Sucked hollows in her cheek,

      And made her eyelids weak,

      Tho' oft they'd open wide with sudden start.

      The deathly power in silence drew

      My lady's life away.

      I watched, dumb with dismay,

      The shock of thrills that quivered thro'

      And tightened every limb:

      For grief my eyes grew dim;

      More near, more near, the moment grew.

      O horrible suspense!

      O giddy impotence!

      I saw her fingers lax, and change their hue.

      Her gaze, grown large with fate, was cast

      Where my mute agonies

      Made more sad her sad eyes:

      Her breath caught with short plucks and fast:—

      Then one hot choking strain.

      She never breathed again:

      I had the look which was her last:

      Even after breath was gone,

      Her love one moment shone,—

      Then slowly closed, and hope for ever passed.

      Silence seemed to start in space

      When first the bell's harsh toll

      Rang for my lady's soul.

      Vitality was hell; her grace

      The shadow of a dream:

      Things then did scarcely seem:

      Oblivion's stroke fell like a mace:

      As