O Sylvan,
drowning?
Lascelle Abercrombie
If to enter life
Needed some courage, 'twere a kind of wages,
As they let sacking soldiers take home loot:
But we are shuffled into life like puppets
Emptied out of a showman's bag; and then
Made spenders of the joys current in heaven!
(_Not such a marvel neither, if this love
Be but the price I'm paid for my free soul.
Who's the old trader that has lent this girl
The glittering cash of pleasure to pay me with?
Who is it,--the world, or the devil, or God--that wants
To buy me from myself? _)
_Katrina_.
And then how vain
To think we can hold back from being enricht!
It is not only offered--
_Sylvan_.
No, 'tis a need
As irresistible within our hearts
As body's need of breathing. (_That I should be
So avaricious of his gleaming price! _)
_Katrina_.
And the instant force it has upon us, when
We think to use love as a privilege!
We are like bees that, having fed all day
On mountain-heather, go to a tumbling stream
To please their little honey-heated thirsts;
And soon as they have toucht the singing relief,
The swiftness of the water seizes them.
_Sylvan_.
And onward, sprawling and spinning, they are carried
Down to a drowning pool.
_Katrina_.
O Sylvan, drowning?
(_Deeper than drowning! Why should it not be
Our hearts need wish only what they delight in_? )
_Sylvan_.
Well, altogether gript by the being of love.
(_Yes, now the bargain's done; and I may wear,
Like a cheated savage, scarlet dyes and strings
Of beaded glass, all the pleasure of love_! )
_Katrina_.
It is a wonderful tyranny, that life
Has no choice but to be delighted love!
(_I know what I must do: I am to abase
My heart utterly, and have nothing in me
That dare take pleasure beyond serving love.
Thus only shall I bear it; and perhaps--
Might I even of my abasement make
A passion, fearfully enjoying it_? )
_Sylvan_.
You are full of thoughts, sweetheart?
_Katrina_.
And so are you:
A long while since you kist me! (_What have I said?
O fool so to remind him!
Needed some courage, 'twere a kind of wages,
As they let sacking soldiers take home loot:
But we are shuffled into life like puppets
Emptied out of a showman's bag; and then
Made spenders of the joys current in heaven!
(_Not such a marvel neither, if this love
Be but the price I'm paid for my free soul.
Who's the old trader that has lent this girl
The glittering cash of pleasure to pay me with?
Who is it,--the world, or the devil, or God--that wants
To buy me from myself? _)
_Katrina_.
And then how vain
To think we can hold back from being enricht!
It is not only offered--
_Sylvan_.
No, 'tis a need
As irresistible within our hearts
As body's need of breathing. (_That I should be
So avaricious of his gleaming price! _)
_Katrina_.
And the instant force it has upon us, when
We think to use love as a privilege!
We are like bees that, having fed all day
On mountain-heather, go to a tumbling stream
To please their little honey-heated thirsts;
And soon as they have toucht the singing relief,
The swiftness of the water seizes them.
_Sylvan_.
And onward, sprawling and spinning, they are carried
Down to a drowning pool.
_Katrina_.
O Sylvan, drowning?
(_Deeper than drowning! Why should it not be
Our hearts need wish only what they delight in_? )
_Sylvan_.
Well, altogether gript by the being of love.
(_Yes, now the bargain's done; and I may wear,
Like a cheated savage, scarlet dyes and strings
Of beaded glass, all the pleasure of love_! )
_Katrina_.
It is a wonderful tyranny, that life
Has no choice but to be delighted love!
(_I know what I must do: I am to abase
My heart utterly, and have nothing in me
That dare take pleasure beyond serving love.
Thus only shall I bear it; and perhaps--
Might I even of my abasement make
A passion, fearfully enjoying it_? )
_Sylvan_.
You are full of thoughts, sweetheart?
_Katrina_.
And so are you:
A long while since you kist me! (_What have I said?
O fool so to remind him!
