Читать книгу Lilith - Ada Langworthy Collier - Страница 6

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Soft stealing through the shade, and skirting swift

The walls of Paradise, through night’s dark rift

Lilith fled far; nor stopped lest deadly snare

Or peril by the wayside lurked.

The air

Grew chill. Loud beat her heart, as through the wind

Echoed, unseen, pursuing feet, behind.

Adown the pathway of the mist she passed,

And reached a weird, strange land at last.

When morning flecked the dappled sky with red,

And odors sweet from waking flowers were shed,

Lilith beheld a plain, outstretching wide,

With distant mountains seamed.

Afar, a silvery tide

The blue shore kissed. And in that tropic glow

Dim islands shone, palm-fringed, and low.

In nearer space, like scarlet arrows flew

Strange birds, or ’mong the reedy fens, or through

Tall trees, of unknown leafage, glancing, went.

Now Lilith seaward passed, and stooping, bent

Her hollowed hand above the wave, and quaffed;

For she was spent with wanderings wide. Loud laughed

She then, beholding on that silent shore

Rare shells, that still faint in their pink lips bore

Wild ocean-songs; and precious stones, that bright

That dim sea’s marge, deep in the land of night

Thick strewed.

Then glad, she lifted shining eyes,

Loud crying there, “O Lilith, now arise,

Great queen-triumphant! See how wildly fair

Before me lies my realm! And from its air

Soft, sensuous, new life as ruddy wine,

My spirit drinks. Nor beauty so divine

Hath Eden’s self. Look, where upon the sands

The garish mosses spread with dainty hands,

Like goblin network fine, each fairy frond.

And dusky trees shut in broad fields beyond,

And hang long trembling garlands, age-grown-gray,

From topmost boughs adown, athwart the day;

And sweet amid these wilds, bright dewy bells

Ring summer chimes. And soft in fragrant dells,

’Mong tender leaves, great spikes of scarlet flaunt

About the pools—the errant wild bees’ haunt—

And thick with bramble-blooms pink petals starred,

And dew-stained buds of blue, the velvet sward.

Scarce ripple stirred the sea; and inland wend

Far bays and sedgy ponds; and rolling rivers bend.

A land of leaf and fruitage in the glow

Of palest glamours steeped. And far and low

Great purple isles; and further still a rim

Of sunset-tinted hills, that softly dim

Shine ’gainst the day. “O world, new found,” she said,

“With treasures heaped and odors rare, ’mong flowers shed,

For whose dear sake I came o’er flinty ways,

And paths with danger fraught; ’mong brambly sprays,

With bleeding feet, and shoulders thorn-pierced deep.

But perils past, fade fast. And I will weep

My Eden lost no more.” And sweet and low

As one who dreams, she said, “For now I know

These mountain heights, these level plains, are mine.”

She ceased, and inland quickly turned. “Fair shine

Strange fruits thick-set, or blossoms lightly tossed

Low at my feet.” Therewith, a dusk globe, crossed

With golden bands, from bent boughs, stripped she. Through

The gleaming sphere its nectrous juices drew,

And thirsting cried—as one grown drunken: “Mine

These fruits unknown, in thorny combs that shine,

Or gray-green spikes that glow, dull on the sands.

Fain would I pluck, out-reaching eager hands,

Save that a marvel grows of ruddier rind

Out-flinging fruity breath upon the wind,

Beneath harsh spines half-hid. Nor drains

My wilful spouse such nectars fine. Nor gains

His patient care the fruitage rare, these plains

That heaps unheeded. Nay, nor bearded grains

Golding this goodly land, where Lilith reigns.”

So passed the glad years on, and o’er her home—

Its woods and mountains, its clear streams—to roam,

She loved. The inmost throb of Nature’s heart

She felt amid the grass. Each daintiest part

Of Nature’s work she knew; each gain, each loss.

And reverent watched on high the starry cross

Gleaming, mute symbol in that southern dome

Of One—the Promised One—of days to come.

The rifted sea-shell on the shingly beach

She scanned, pitying each inmate gone. Each

Named. ’Mong beetling crags, the sea-bird’s home,

Light-footed, went. Or, idly, in the foam

Under the cocoa-palms, her fingers dipped,

Much marveling to see where featly slipped

Beneath the waves scaled creatures, crimson-dyed

Or luminous: Barred-yellow, purple pied,

Rose-tinted, opaline, or dight with stain,

Rich as the rainbow streaks, when through the rain

The Sun’s kiss falls. Much wondered she when bright

By sedgy pools, flamingoes stalked. And light

The startled ostrich bent his headlong flight

O’er desert bare. And on the woody height

Trooped zebras, velvet-brown. The date’s green crest

Beneath, the peaceful camels lay at rest.

And slender-straight camelopards the boughs

Down-drew, the lush-green leaves thereon to browse.