Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Love in Exile (Songs). II. I was again beside My LoveMathilde Blind (18411896)
I
Earth was so beautiful, the moon was shining;
The muffled voice of many a cataract stream
Came like a love-song, as, with arms entwining,
Our hearts were mixed in unison supreme.
The tasselled larches had no sound or motion,
As my whole life was sinking into thine—
Sinking into a deep, unfathomed ocean
Of infinite love—uncircumscribed, divine.
Eternal eyes that watched in mute compassion
Our little lives o’erleap their mortal bars,
Fused in the fulness of immortal passion,
A passion as immortal as the stars.
No sense of self, no wish or incompleteness;
The moment, rounded to Eternity,
Annihilated time’s destructive fleetness:
For all but love itself had ceased to be.