(THE CHILD OF ABELARD AND HELOISE)
I
Wrenched from a passing comet in its flight,
By that great force of two mad hearts
aflame,
A soul incarnate, back to earth you
came,
To glow like star-dust for a little night.
Deep shadows hide you wholly from our sight;
The centuries leave nothing but your
name,
Tinged with the luster of a splendid
shame,
That blazed oblivion with rebellious light.
The mighty passion that became your cause,
Still burns its lengthening path across
the years;
We feel its raptures, and we see its
tears
And ponder on its retributive laws.
Time keeps that deathless story ever
new;
Yet finds no answer, when we ask of
you.
At Argenteuil, I saw the lonely cellII
Across the centuries there comes no sound
Of that vast anguish; not one sigh or
word
Or echo of the mother loss has stirred,
The sea of silence, lasting and profound.
Yet to each heart, that once has felt
this grief,
Sad Memory restores Time's missing leaf.
But what of you? Who took the mother's placeIII
Conceived in nature's bold primordial way
(As in their revolutions, suns create),
You came to earth, a soul immaculate,
Baptized in fire, with some great part to play.
What was that part, and wherefore hid
from us,
Immortal mystery, Astrolabius!
Poems of Progress and New Thought Pastels by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
London: Gay & Hancock, 1911.
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