Prometheus Bound, and other poems/Memory and Hope

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

MEMORY AND HOPE.

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I.

BACK-LOOKING Memory
⁠And prophet Hope both sprang from out the ground:
One, where the flashing of Cherubic sword
⁠Fell sad, in Eden sward;
And one, from Eden earth, within the sound
Of the four rivers lapsing pleasantly,
What time the promise after curse was said—
⁠"Thy seed shall bruise his head."

II.

⁠Poor Memory's brain is wild,
As moonstruck by that flaming atmosphere
When she was born. Her deep eyes shine and shone
⁠With light that conquereth sun
And stars to wanner paleness year by year:
With odorous gums, she mixeth things defiled;
She trampleth down earth's grasses green and sweet,
⁠With her far-wandering feet.

 

III.

⁠She plucketh many flowers,
Their beauty on her bosom's coldness killing;
She teacheth every melancholy sound
⁠To winds and waters round;
She droppeth tears with seed, where man is tilling
The rugged soil in his exhausted hours;
She smileth—ah me! in her smile doth go
⁠A mood of deeper woe!

IV.

⁠Hope tripped on out of sight
Crowned with an Eden wreath she saw not fade,
And went a-nodding through the wilderness,
⁠With brow that shone no less
Than sea-bird wings, by storm more frequent made,—
Searching the treeless rock for fruits of light;
Her fair quick feet being armed from stones and cold,
⁠By slippers all of gold.

V.

⁠Memory did Hope much wrong,
And, while she dreamed, her slippers stole away;
But still she wended on with mirth unheeding,
⁠The while her feet were bleeding;
Till Memory met her on a certain day,
And with most evil eyes did search her long
And cruelly, whereat she sank to ground
⁠In a stark deadly swound.

 

VI.

⁠And so my Hope were slain,
Had it not been that thou wert standing near,
Oh Thou, who saidest 'live' to creatures lying
⁠In their own blood, and dying!
For Thou her forehead to thine heart didst rear,
And make its silent pulses sing again,—
Pouring a new light o'er her darkened eyne,
⁠With tender tears from Thine!

VII.

⁠Therefore my Hope arose
From out her swound, and gazed upon Thy face;
And, meeting there that soft subduing look
⁠Which Peter's spirit shook,
Sank downward in a rapture to embrace
Thy piercèd hands and feet with kisses close,
And prayed Thee to assist her evermore
⁠To "reach the things before."

VIII.

⁠Then gavest Thou the smile
Whence angel-wings thrill quick like summer lightning,
Vouchsafing rest beside Thee, where she never
⁠From Love and Faith may sever;
Whereat the Eden crown she saw not whitening,
A time ago, though whitening all the while,
Reddened with life, to hear the Voice which talked
⁠To Adam as he walked.