Ride to the Lady

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ride to the Lady, by Helen Gray Cone
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Title: Ride to the Lady
Author: Helen Gray Cone
Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9559]?[This file was first posted on October 8, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, RIDE TO THE LADY ***
E-text prepared by Ted Garvin, Josephine Paolucci, and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
THE RIDE TO THE LADY
And Other Poems
BY
HELEN GRAY CONE
1891
CONTENTS
The Ride to the Lady
The First Guest
Silence
Arraignment
The Going Out of the Tide
King Raedwald
Ivo of Chartres
Madonna Pia
Two Moods of Failure
The Story of the "Orient"
A Resurrection
The Glorious Company
The Trumpeter
Comrades
The House of Hate
The Arrowmaker
A Nest in a Lyre
Thisbe
The Spring Beauties
Kinship
Compensation
When Willows Green
At the Parting of the Ways
The Fair Gray Lady
The Encounter.
Summer Hours
Love Unsung
The Wish for a Chaplet
Sonnets:?The Torch Race?To Sleep?Sister Snow?The Contrast?A Mystery?Triumph?In Winter, with the Book we had in Spring?Sere Wisdom?Isolation?The Lost Dryad?The Gifts of the Oak?The Strayed Singer?The Immortal Word
THE RIDE TO THE LADY
"Now since mine even is come at last,--?For I have been the sport of steel,?And hot life ebbeth from me fast,?And I in saddle roll and reel,--?Come bind me, bind me on my steed!?Of fingering leech I have no need!"?The chaplain clasped his mailed knee.?"Nor need I more thy whine and thee!?No time is left my sins to tell;?But look ye bind me, bind me well!"?They bound him strong with leathern thong,?For the ride to the lady should be long.
Day was dying; the poplars fled,?Thin as ghosts, on a sky blood-red;?Out of the sky the fierce hue fell,?And made the streams as the streams of hell.?All his thoughts as a river flowed,?Flowed aflame as fleet he rode,?Onward flowed to her abode,?Ceased at her feet, mirrored her face.?(Viewless Death apace, apace,?Rode behind him in that race.)
"Face, mine own, mine alone,?Trembling lips my lips have known,?Birdlike stir of the dove-soft eyne?Under the kisses that make them mine!?Only of thee, of thee, my need!?Only to thee, to thee, I speed!"?The Cross flashed by at the highway's turn;?In a beam of the moon the Face shone stern.
Far behind had the fight's din died;?The shuddering stars in the welkin wide?Crowded, crowded, to see him ride.?The beating hearts of the stars aloof?kept time to the beat of the horse's hoof,?"What is the throb that thrills so sweet??Heart of my lady, I feel it beat!"?But his own strong pulse the fainter fell,?Like the failing tongue of a hushing bell.?The flank of the great-limbed steed was wet?Not alone with the started sweat.
Fast, and fast, and the thick black wood?Arched its cowl like a black friar's hood;?Fast, and fast, and they plunged therein,--?But the viewless rider rode to win,?Out of the wood to the highway's light?Galloped the great-limbed steed in fright;?The mail clashed cold, and the sad owl cried,?And the weight of the dead oppressed his side.
Fast, and fast, by the road he knew;?And slow, and slow, the stars withdrew;?And the waiting heaven turned weirdly blue,?As a garment worn of a wizard grim.?He neighed at the gate in the morning dim.
She heard no sound before her gate,?Though very quiet was her bower.?All was as her hand had left it late:?The needle slept on the broidered vine,?Where the hammer and spikes of the passion-flower?Her fashioning did wait.?On the couch lay something fair,?With steadfast lips and veiled eyne;
But the lady was not there,?On the wings of shrift and prayer,?Pure as winds that winnow snow,?Her soul had risen twelve hours ago.?The burdened steed at the barred gate stood,?No whit the nearer to his goal.?Now God's great grace assoil the soul?That went out in the wood!
THE FIRST GUEST
When the house is finished, Death enters.?Eastern Proverb
Life's House being ready all,?Each chamber fair and dumb,?Ere life, the Lord, is come?With pomp into his hall,--?Ere Toil has trod the floors,?Ere Love has lit the fires,?Or young great-eyed Desires?Have, timid, tried the doors;?Or from east-window leaned?One Hope, to greet the sun,?Or one gray Sorrow screened?Her sight against the west,--?Then enters the first guest,?The House of life being done.
He waits there in the shade.?I deem he is Life's twin,?For whom the house was