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That oceans are, |
And prayer, |
And that pale sustenance, |
Despair! |
XIII. |
RENUNCIATION. |
There came a day at summer's full |
Entirely for me; |
I thought that such were for the saints, |
Where revelations be. |
The sun, as common, went abroad, |
The flowers, accustomed, blew, |
As if no soul the solstice passed |
That maketh all things new. |
The time was scarce profaned by speech; |
The symbol of a word |
Was needless, as at sacrament |
The wardrobe of our Lord. |
Each was to each the sealed church, |
Permitted to commune this time, |
Lest we too awkward show |
At supper of the Lamb. |
The hours slid fast, as hours will, |
Clutched tight by greedy hands; |
So faces on two decks look back, |
Bound to opposing lands. |
And so, when all the time had failed, |
Without external sound, |
Each bound the other's crucifix, |
We gave no other bond. |
Sufficient troth that we shall rise -- |
Deposed, at length, the grave -- |
To that new marriage, justified |
Through Calvaries of Love! |
XIV. |
LOVE'S BAPTISM. |
I'm ceded, I've stopped being theirs; |
The name they dropped upon my face |
With water, in the country church, |
Is finished using now, |
And they can put it with my dolls, |
My childhood, and the string of spools |
I've finished threading too. |
Baptized before without the choice, |
But this time consciously, of grace |
Unto supremest name, |
Called to my full, the crescent dropped, |
Existence's whole arc filled up |
With one small diadem. |