Poems (Dudley)/My Defeat

by Marion Vienna Churchill Dudley

MY DEFEAT.

"SAY why of all lovers I loved you the best?"
 You left me no room for a choice;
You tortured my soul to a stormy unrest
 In the eddying waves of your voice;

You lured me with silence, then lulled me to sleep
 In the dangerous dark of your eyes;
I woke from my dreaming to wearily weep
 In the pain of my bitter surprise;

Proud pride of my girlhood, low laid at your feet!
 Haughty heart that had caroled so long,
Its sovereign freedom, its scorn of defeat.—
 Ah, the dirge of its hope was the doom of its song!

And your face was as white as the light of the moon
 On the pale-browed rocks by the sea;
You spoke and I knew that the chains of your love
 Must forever be freedom to me.

My master had spoken; he called for his own,
 And I could not and would not be brave;
I gave him my kingdom, surrendered my throne
 And I sceptered and crowned him—my slave.

1872.