[Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II. by Jean Ingelow]@TWC D-Link book
Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II.

BOOK V
4/5

Get hence.

Obey my words." Then Japhet lifted up his voice, and wept.
And no more he restrained himself, but cried, With heavings of the heart, "O hateful day! O day that shuts the door upon delight.
A slave! to wed a slave! O loathed wife, Hated of Japhet's soul." And after, long, With face between his hands, he sat, his thoughts Sullen and sore; then scorned himself, and saying, "I will not take her, I will die unwed, It is but that"; lift up his eyes and saw The slave, and she was sitting at his feet; And he, so greatly wondering that she dared The disobedience, looked her in the face Less angry than afraid, for pale she was As lily yet unsmiled on by the sun; And he, his passion being spent, sighed out, "Low am I fallen indeed.

Hast thou no fear, That thou dost flout me ?" but she gave to him The sighing echo of his sigh, and mourned, "No." And he wondered, and he looked again, For in her heart there was a new-born pang, That cried; but she, as mothers with their young, Suffered, yet loved it; and there shone a strange Grave sweetness in her blue unsullied eyes.
And Japhet, leaning from the settle, thought, "What is it?
I will call her by her name, To comfort her, for also she is naught To blame; and since I will not her to wife, She falls back from the freedom she had hoped." Then he said "Amarant"; and the damsel drew Her eyes down slowly from the shaded sky Of even, and she said, "My master's son, Japhet"; and Japhet said, "I am not wroth With thee, but wretched for my mother's deed, Because she shamed me." And the maiden said, "Doth not thy father love thee well, sweet sir ?" "Ay," quoth he, "well." She answered, "Let the heart Of Japhet, then, be merry.

Go to him And say, 'The damsel whom my mother chose, Sits by her in the house; but as for me, Sir, ere I take her, let me go with you To that same outland country.

Also, sir, My damsel hath not worked as yet the robe Of her betrothal'; now, then, sith he loves, He will not say thee nay.


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