No More Learning

_Aibric. _ I have seen nothing pass.

_Forgael. _ You are certain of it? I never wake from sleep
But that I am afraid they may have passed;
For they're my only pilots. I have not seen them
For many days, and yet there must be many
Dying at every moment in the world.

_Aibric. _ They have all but driven you crazy, and already
The sailors have been plotting for your death,
And all the birds have cried into your ears
Has lured you on to death.

_Forgael. _ No; but they promised--

_Aibric. _ I know their promises. You have told me all.
They are to bring you to unheard-of passion,
To some strange love the world knows nothing of,
Some ever-living woman as you think,
One that can cast no shadow, being unearthly.
But that's all folly. Turn the ship about,
Sail home again, be some fair woman's friend;
Be satisfied to live like other men,
And drive impossible dreams away.
The world
Has beautiful women to please every man.

_Forgael. _ But he that gets their love after the fashion
Loves in brief longing and deceiving hope
And bodily tenderness, and finds that even
The bed of love, that in the imagination
Had seemed to be the giver of all peace,
Is no more than a wine cup in the tasting,
And as soon finished.

_Aibric. _ All that ever loved
Have loved that way--there is no other way.

_Forgael. _ Yet never have two lovers kissed but they
Believed there was some other near at hand,
And almost wept because they could not find it.

_Aibric. _ When they have twenty years; in middle life
They take a kiss for what a kiss is worth,
And let the dream go by.

_Forgael. _ It's not a dream,
But the reality that makes our passion
As a lamp shadow--no--no lamp, the sun.
What the world's million lips are thirsting for,
Must be substantial somewhere.

_Aibric. _ I have heard the Druids
Mutter such things as they awake from trance.
It may be that the dead have lit upon it,
Or those that never lived; no mortal can.

_Forgael.