iris--film of love,
The fleeting shade of an eternal thing.
Beauty--the cloudy mock of Tantalus;
Daughter of Time, betrothed unto Death,
Who, all so soon as the lank anarch old
Fingers her palm, and lips her for his bride,
Suffers collapse, and straightway doth become
A hideous comment of mortality.
Know this, my lord, while thou dost run from me,
The tide of true love hath its hours of ebb,
If the attendant orb withdraw his light;
And though there be a love as strong as death,
There is a pride stronger than death or love;
And whether 'tis that I am royal born,
Or kingly blooded, or that once I was
Sometimes a mistress in my father's court,
I have of patience much--not overmuch--
And thou hadst best beware the boundary.
Oh thou too cruel and injurious thorn!
What hast thou done to my poor innocent hand!
Thou art like Theseus, thou dost make me bleed;
Offenceless I, yet thou dost make me bleed.
This scratch I shall remember well, my lord!
Deceiver false! deserter! runaway!
My quick-heeled slave! my loose ungrateful bird!
Where'er thou art, or if thou hear or no,
Know that thou art from this time given o'er,
To tarry and return what time thou wilt.
It is most like that thou dost lurk not far,
In twilight of some envious cave or bower.
Well, if thou dost--why--lurk thy heart's content.
Poor rogue! thou art not worth this weariness.
I will not flutter more, nor cry to thee.
Since thou art fledged, and toppled from the nest,
Go--pick thy crumbs where thou canst find them best.

III.

Once more, once more, O yet again once more,
Spent is my breath with fear and weariness!
Vain toil it is to track this tangled wild--
This rank o'ergrown imprisoned solitude--
Whose very flowers are fetters in my way;
Where I am chained about with vines and briers,
Led blindfold on through mazes tenantless,
And not a friendly echo answers me.
Oh for a foot as airy as the wing
Of the young brooding dove, to overpass,
On swift commission of my true heart's love,
All metes and bournes of this lone wilderness:
So should I quickly find my truant lord.
But, as it is, I can no farther go.
What shall I do? despair? lie down and die?
If I give o'er my search I shall despair,
And if I do despair, I quickly die.
Avau