Page:The complete works of Mrs. E. B. Browning (Volume 1).djvu/201

The tossing of its pulses; and a cold,
Instead of living blood, o'ercreep my brow.
Albeit such darkness brooded all around,
I had dread knowledge that the open eyes
Of that dead man were glaring up to mine,
With their unwinking, unexpressive stare;
And mine I could not shut nor turn away.
The man was my familiar. I had borne 90
Those eyes to scowl on me their living hate,
Better than I could bear their deadliness:
I had endured the curses of those lips.
Far better than their silence. Oh constrain'd
And awful silence!—awful peace of death!
There is an answer to all questioning.
That one word—death. Our bitterness can throw
No look upon the face of death, and live.
The burning thoughts that erst my soul illumed.
Were quench'd at once; as tapers in a pit 100
Wherein the vapour-witches weirdly reign
In charge of darkness. Farewell all the past!
It was out-blotted from my memory's eyes.
When clay's cold silence pleaded for its sin.

Farewell the elemental war! farewell
The clashing of the shielded clouds—the cry
Of scathed echoes! I no longer knew
Silence from sound, but wander'd far away
Into the deep Eleusis of mine heart.
To learn its secret things. When armëd foes 110
Meet on one deck with impulse violent.
The vessel quakes thro' all her oaken ribs.
And shivers in the sea; so with mine heart:
For there had battled in her solitudes.
Contrary spirits; sympathy with power,