THE SECOND FLOOD

How could I know, how could I guess

That here was your great happiness —

In mine? And how could I know

Your love infinite must grow?

Suddenly at dawn I wake

To see the cruse of colour break

Over the East, and then the gray

Creep up with light of common day...

No, no, no! again that bright

Flashing, flushing, flooding light

Leading on day, until I ache

With love to see the dark world wake.

O, with such second flood your love

Painted my earth and heaven above,

With such wild magnificence

As bruised my heart in every sense,

In every nerve. Was ever man

Fit this renewed love to sustain?

Now in these days when Autumn's leaf

Is red and gold, and for a brief

Day the earth flowers ere it dies,

What if Spring came with new surprise,

Came ere the aspen shivered bare

Or the beech coins glittered in cold air,

Before the rough wind the maple stripped

And this bare moon on bare boughs stepped!

Vain thought — O, yet not wholly vain:

Even to me Love has come again,

Moving from your quick breast where he

Fluttered in his wondering infancy.