قراءة كتاب Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life
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اللغة: English
الصفحة رقم: 3
class="verse">Her lips were locked, her arms were crossed,
Her eyes were in her brows.
II.
One hand enclosed a paper scroll,
Held as a strangled asp.
So may we see the woman's soul
In her dire tempter's grasp.
III.
Along that scroll Count Louis' doom
Throbbed till the letters flamed.
She saw him in his scornful bloom,
She saw him chained and shamed.
IV.
Around that scroll Count Louis' fate
Was acted to her stare,
And hate in love and love in hate
Fought fell to smite or spare.
V.
Between the day that struck her old,
And this black star of days,
Her heart swung like a storm-bell tolled
Above a town ablaze.
VI.
His beauty pressed to intercede,
His beauty served him ill.
—Not Vengeance, 'tis his rebel's deed,
'Tis Justice, not our will!
VII.
Yet who had sprung to life's full force
A breast that loveless dried?
But who had sapped it at the source,
With scarlet to her pride!
VIII.
He brought her human wane as 'twere
New message from the skies.
And he betrayed, and left on her
The burden of their sighs.
IX.
In floods her tender memories poured;
They foamed with waves of spite:
She crushed them, high her heart outsoared,
To keep her mind alight.
X.
—The crawling creature, called in scorn
A woman!—with this pen
We sign a paper that may warn
His crowing fellowmen.
XI.
—We read them lesson of a power
They slight who do us wrong.
That bitter hour this bitter hour
Provokes; by turns the strong!
XII.
—That we were woman once is known:
That we are Justice now,
Above our sex, above the throne,
Men quaking shall avow.
XIII.
Archduchess Anne ascending flew,
Her heart outsoared, but felt
The demon of her sex pursue,
Incensing or to melt.
XIV.
Those counterfloods below at leap,
Still in her breast blew storm,
And farther up the heavenly steep,
Wrestled in angels' form.
XV.
To disentangle one clear wish
Not of her sex, she sought;
And womanish to womanish,
Discerned in lighted thought.
XVI.
With Louis' chance it went not well
When at herself she raged;
A woman, of whom men might tell
She doted, crazed and aged.
XVII.
Or else enamoured of a sweet
Withdrawn, a vengeful crone!
And say, what figure at her feet
Is this that utters moan?
XVIII.
The Countess Louis from her head
Drew veil: 'Great Lady, hear!
My husband deems you Justice dread,
I know you Mercy dear.
XIX.
'His error upon him may fall;
He will not breathe a nay.
I am his helpless mate in all,
Except for grace to pray.
XX.
'Perchance on me his choice inclined,
To give his House an heir:
I had not marriage with his mind,
His counsel could not share.
XXI.
'I brought no portion for his weal
But this one instinct true,
Which bids me in my weakness kneel,
Archduchess Anne, to you.'
XXII.
The frowning Lady uttered, 'Forth!'
Her look forbade delay.
'It is not mine to weigh your worth;
Your husband's others weigh.
XXIII.
'Hence with the woman in your speech,
For nothing it avails
In woman's fashion to beseech
Where Justice holds the scales.'
XXIV.
Then bent and went the lady wan,
Whose girlishness made grey
The thoughts that through Archduchess Anne
Shattered