"No doubt we seem a kind of monster to you; 260 We are used to that: for women, up till this Cramp'd under worse than South-sea-isle taboo, Dwarfs of the gynæceum, fail so far In high desire, they know not, cannot guess By slow approaches than by single act Of immolation, any phase of death, We were as prompt to spring against the pikes 270 Or down the fiery gulf as talk of it, To compass our dear sisters' liberties." She bow'd as if to veil a noble tear; To plunge in cataract, shattering on black blocks 280 That will be." "Dare we dream of that," I ask'd, "Which wrought us, as the workman and his work, That practice betters?' "How," she cried, "you love The metaphysics! read and earn our prize, A golden brooch: beneath an emerald plane 285 Sits Diotima, teaching him that died Of hemlock; our device; wrought to the life; She rapt upon her subject, he on her: For there are schools for all." "And yet," I said, "Methinks I have not found among them all 290 One anatomic." "Nay, we thought of that," She answer'd, "but it pleased us not in truth We shudder but to dream our maids should ape Those monstrous males that carve the living hound, And cram him with the fragments of the grave, 295 Or in the dark dissolving human heart, And holy secrets of this microcosm, Dabbling a shameless hand with shameful jest, Nor willing men should come among us, learnt, This craft of healing. Were you sick, ourself To your question now, 305 Which touches on the workman and his work. Let there be light and there was light: 'tis so: And all creation is one act at once, The birth of light: but we that are not all, 310 As parts, can see but parts, now this, now that, And live, perforce, from thought to thought, and make One act a phantom of succession: thus Our weakness somehow shapes the shadow, Time; "Yea," "To linger here with one that loved us." She answer'd, "or with fair philosophies That lift the fancy; for indeed these fields Are lovely, lovelier not the Elysian lawns, 325 Where paced the Demigods of old, and saw The soft white vapour streak the crownèd towers Built to the Sun:" then, turning to her maids, "Pitch our pavilion here upon the sward; Lay out the viands." At the word, they raised 330 A tent of satin, elaborately wrought With fair Corinna's triumph; here she stood, The woman-conqueror; woman-conquer'd there With mine affianced. Many a little hand Glanced like a touch of sunshine on the rocks, 340 Many a light foot shone like a jewel set In the dark crag: and then we turn'd, we wound About the cliffs, the copses, out and in, Hammering and clinking, chattering stony names Of shale and hornblende, rag and trap and tuff, 345 Amygdaloid and trachyte, till the Sun Grew broader toward his death and fell, and all The spendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story: Blow, bugle, blow; set the wild echoes flying; Oh hark, oh hear! how thin and clear, The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: O love! they die in yon rich sky, And grow for ever and for ever. Blow, bugle, blow; set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying! |