Two strong streams of a land must run Together surely as the sun Succeeds the moon. Who shall gainsay The fates that reign, that wisely reign? Love is, love was, shall be again. Like death, inevitable it is; Perchance, like death, the dawn of bliss. Let us, then, love the perfect day, The twelve o'clock of life, and stop The two hands pointing to the top, And hold them tightly while we may. XXIV. How piteous strange is love! The walks By wooded ways; the silent talks Beneath the broad and fragrant bough. The dark deep wood, the dense black dell, Where scarce a single gold beam fell From out the sun. They rested now On mossy trunk. They wandered then Where never fell the feet of men. Then longer walks, then deeper woods, Then sweeter talks, sufficient sweet, In denser, deeper solitudes,-- Dear careless ways for careless feet; Sweet talks of paradise for two, And only two, to watch or woo. She rarely spake. All seemed a dream She would not waken from. She lay All night but waiting for the day, When she might see his face, and deem This man, with all his perils passed, Had found the Lotus-land at last. XXV. The year waxed fervid, and the sun Fell central down. The forest lay A-quiver in the heat. The sea Below the steep bank seemed to run A molten sea of gold. Away Against the gray and rock-built isles That broke the molten watery miles Where lonesome sea-cows called all day, The sudden sun smote angrily. Therefore the need of deeper deeps, Of denser shade for man and maid, Of higher heights, of cooler steeps, Where all day long the sea-wind stayed. They sought the rock-reared steep. The breeze Swept twenty thousand miles of seas; Had twenty thousand things to say Of love, of lovers of Cathay, To lovers 'mid these high-held trees. XXVI. To left, to right, below the height, Below the wood by wave and stream, Plumed pampas grasses grew to gleam And bend their lordly plumes, and run And shake, as if in very fright Before sharp lances of the sun. They saw the tide-bound battered ship Creep close below against the bank; They saw it cringe and shrink; it shrank As shrinks some huge black beast with fear When some uncommon dread is near. They heard the melting resin drip, As drip the last brave blood-drops when Life's battle waxes hot with men. XXVII. Yet what to her were burning seas, Or what to him was forest flame? They loved; they loved the glorious trees, The gleaming tides, or rise or fall; They loved the lisping winds that came From sea-lost spice-set isles unknown, With breath not warmer than their own: They loved, they loved,--and that was all. XXVIII. Full noon! Below the ancient moss With mighty boughs high clanged across, The man with sweet words, over-sweet, Fell pleading, plaintive, at her feet.