Читать книгу Last Verses - Coolidge Susan - Страница 2

BEHIND her triple prison-bars shut in

She sits, the whitest soul on earth to-day.

No shadowing stain, no whispered hint of sin,

Into that sanctuary finds the way.

There enters only clear and proven truth

Apportioned for her use by loving hands

And winnowed from all knowledge of all lands

To satisfy her ardent thirst of youth.

Like a strange alabaster mask her face,

Rayless and sightless, set in patience dumb,

Until like quick electric currents come

The signals of life into her lonely place;

Then, like a lamp just lit, an inward gleam

Flashes within the mask’s opacity,

The features glow and dimple suddenly,

And fun and tenderness and sparkle seem

To irradiate the lines once dull and blind,

While the white slender fingers reach and cling

With quick imploring gestures, questioning

The mysteries and the meanings: – to her mind

The world is not the sordid world we know;

It is a happy and benignant spot

Where kindness reigns, and jealousy is not,

And men move softly, dropping as they go

The golden fruit of knowledge for all to share.

And Love is King, and Heaven is very near,

And God to whom each separate soul is dear

Makes fatherly answer to each whispered prayer.

Ah, little stainless soul, shut in so close,

May never hint of doubt creep in to be

A shadow on the calm security

Which wraps thee, as its fragrance wraps a rose.