Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
Mammon MarriageGeorge MacDonald (1824–1905)
T
A dog’s howl, kennel-tied!
Loud shuts the carriage-door:
The two are away on their ghastly ride
To Death’s salt shore!
The bridegroom is thirsty and cold!
The bride’s skull sharpens her face!
But the coachman is driving, jubilant, bold,
The devil’s pace.
Waiting gaunt and haggard
With sorry and evil look;
But swift as a drunken wind they stagger’d
’Longst Lethe brook.
Heavily pulling they died
On the sand of the hopeless shore
Where never swell’d or sank a tide,
And the salt burns sore.
White shadows on shining sand;
The crusted reins go high
To the crumbling coachman’s bony hand
On his knees awry.
Day and night side by side,
Each by a doorless door,
Motionless sit the bridegroom and bride
On the Dead-Sea-shore.