Fiametta: A Sequence

FIAMETTA: A SEQUENCE. 

 

I.

Behind the Rector's lily-bed

  I saw an Angel pass,

A halo shone behind her head

  Behind the Rector's lily-bed,

It was the sun blushed fiery red.

  So very fair she was!

Behind the Rector's lily-bed

  I saw an Angel pass.

II.

Fiametta is her name

  And she's the Rector's cousin,

But she shall be my flame !

  (Fiametta is her name).

The Rector's old and lame,

  Has daughters by the dozen,

Fiametta is her name

  And she's the Rector's cousin !

 

III.

Her eyes are a flame

  To fire the heart of me !

A flame is her name,

  Her eyes are a flame,

My heart burns the same

  The fiercest of the three.

Her eyes are a flame

To fire the heart of me.

 

IV.

Her life is a fire,

  A pure altar flame !

Through heaven and higher

It burns as a fire

  Past Angels in quire,

For God is its aim !

  Her life is a fire,

A pure altar flame.

 

V.

I praised Fiametta's face

  Before I heard her singing.

Ah me, the dainty grace!

  I praised Fiametta's face,

She sang then, from their place

  The enraptured angels bringing.

I praised Fiametta's face

  Before I heard her singing.

 

VI.

But when the song was done

  I gave no further praising,

Eyes bold when Luna shone

  (Alas the song was done,)

Yet gaze not on the sun

  Lest they be blinded gazing,

So when the song was done

  I gave no further praising.

 

VII.

Since I am her's and she is mine

  We live in Love and fear no change!

For Love is God, so we divine,

  Since I am her's and she is mine.

In some fair love-land far and fine

  Through golden years our feet shall range.

Since I am her's and she is mine

   We live in Love and fear no change!

 

VIII.

Why dost thou look so pale, my Love?

  Why dost thou sigh and say Farewell?

"These myrtles seem a cypress grove,"

   Why dost thou look so pale, my Love?

"I hear the raven, not the dove,

   And for the marriage-peal, a knell,"

Why dost thou look so pale, my Love?

   Why dost thou sigh and say Farewell?

 

IX.

"Since I can never come again

  When I am dead and gone from here,

Grieve not for me, all griefs in vain

  Since I can never come again;

But let no thought of me remain

  With my last kiss give thy last tear,

Since I can never come again

  When I am dead and gone from here."

 

X.

All the night and all the day

  I think upon her lying dead,

With lips that neither kiss nor pray

  All the night nor all the day,

In that dark grave whose only ray

  Of sun or moon's her golden head.

All the night and all the day

  I think upon her lying dead.

 

XI.

Why should I live alone

  Since Love was all in vain?

My heart to thine is flown

  Why should I live alone?

Dost thou too make thy moan

  In Paradise complain:

Why should I live alone

  Since Love was all in vain?

 

XII.

What can heal a broken heart?

  Death alone I fear me,

Thou that dost true lovers part

  What can heal a broken heart?

Death alone that made the smart,

  Death that will not hear me.

What can heal a broken heart?

  Death alone I fear me.