As I lay at your feet that afternoon, Little we spoke,--you sat and mused, Humming a sweet old-fashioned tune, And I worshipped you, with a sense confused Of the good time gone and the bad on the way, While my hungry eyes your face perused To catch and brand on my soul for aye The subtle smile which had grown my doom. Drinking sweet poison hushed I lay Till the sunset shimmered athwart the room. I rose to go. You stood so fair And dim in the dead day's tender gloom: All at once, or ever I was aware, Flashed from you on me a warm strong wave Of passion and power; in the silence there I fell on my knees, like a lover, or slave, With my wild hands clasping your slender waist; And my lips, with a sudden frenzy brave, A madman's kiss on your girdle pressed, And I felt your calm heart's quickening beat, And your soft hands on me one instant rest. And if God had loved me, how endlessly sweet Had he let my heart in its rapture burst, And throb its last at your firm small feet! And when I was forth, I shuddered at first At my imminent bliss. As a soul in pain, Treading his desolate path accursed, Looks back and dreams through his tears' dim rain That by Heaven's wide gate the angels smile, Relenting, and beckon him back again, And goes on, thrice damned by that devil's wile,-- So sometimes burns in my weary brain The thought that you loved me all the while. Guy of the Temple Down the dim West slow fails the stricken sun, And from his hot face fades the crimson flush Veiled in death's herald-shadows sick and gray. Silent and dark the sombre valley lies Forgotten; happy in the late fond beams Glimmer the constant waves of Galilee. Afar, below, in airy music ring The bugles of my host; the column halts, A wearied serpent glittering in the vale, Where rising mist-like gleam the tented camps.