Men and Women (Browning)/Volume 1/A Serenade at the Villa
A SERENADE AT THE VILLA.
1.That was I, you heard last night When there rose no moon at all,Nor, to pierce the strained and tight Tent of heaven, a planet small:Life was dead, and so was light.
2.Not a twinkle from the fly, Not a glimmer from the worm.When the crickets stopped their cry, When the owls forbore a term,You heard music; that was I.
3.Earth turned in her sleep with pain, Sultrily suspired for proof:In at heaven and out again, Lightning!—where it broke the roof,Bloodlike, some few drops of rain.
4.What they could my words expressed, O my love, my all, my one!Singing helped the verses best, And when singing's best was done,To my lute I left the rest.
5.So wore night; the east was grey, White the broad-faced hemlock-flowers;There would come another day; Ere its first of heavy hoursFound me, I had past away.
6.What became of all the hopes, Words and song and lute as well?Say, this struck you—"When life gropes Feebly for the path where fellLight last on the evening slopes,
7."One friend in that path shall be To secure my step from wrong;One to count night day for me, Patient through the watches long,Serving most with none to see."
8.Never say—as something bodes— "So the worst has yet a worse!When life halts 'neath double loads, Better the taskmaster's curseThan such music on the roads!
9."When no moon succeeds the sun, Nor can pierce the midnight's tentAny star, the smallest one, While some drops, where lightning went,Show the final storm begun—
10."When the fire-fly hides its spot, When the garden-voices failIn the darkness thick and hot,— Shall another voice avail,That shape be where these are not?
11."Has some plague a longer lease Proffering its help uncouth?Can't one even die in peace? As one shuts one's eyes on youth,Is that face the last one sees?"
12.Oh, how dark your villa was, Windows fast and obdurate!How the garden grudged me grass Where I stood—the iron gateGround its teeth to let me pass!