So sigh'd the king--the linden near; A listener heard the sigh, And thus the heart he did not hear, Breathed back the soft reply:-- II. "And far as sweep the seas below, His sails are on the deep; And far as yonder eagles go, His flag on every keep; "LOVE, _thou_ art not a king alone, Both slave and king thou art! Who seeks to sway, must stoop to own The kingdom of a heart!" So sigh'd the Maid, the linden near, Beneath the lonely sky; Oh, lonely _not_!--for angels hear The humblest human sigh! III. His ships are vanish'd from the main, His banners from the keep; The carnage triumphs on the plain; The tempest on the deep. "The purple and the crown are mine"-- An Outlaw sigh'd--"no more; But still as greenly grows the vine Around the cottage door! "Rest for the weary pilgrim, Maid, And water from the spring!" Before the humble cottage pray'd The Man that was a King. Oh, was the threshold that he cross'd The gate to fairy ground? He would not for the kingdom lost, Have changed the kingdom found! Divine interpreter thou art, O Song! To thee all secrets of all hearts belong! How had the lay, as in a mirror, glass'd The sullen present and the joyless past, Lock'd in the cloister of that lonely soul!-- Ere the song ceased, to Lucy's side he stole, And, with the closing cadence, mournfully Lifted his doubtful gaze:--so eye met eye. If thou hast loved, re-ope the magic book; Say, do its annals date not from a look? In which two hearts, unguess'd perchance before, Rush'd each to each, and were as two no more; While all thy being--by some Power, above Its will constrain'd--sigh'd, trembling, "This is Love." A look! and lo! they knew themselves alone! Calantha's place was void--the witness gone; They had not mark'd her sad step glide away, When in sweet silence sank, less sweet, the lay; For unto both abruptly came the hour When springs the rose-fence round the fairy bower; When earth shut out, all life transferr'd to one, Each _other_ life seems cloud before the sun; It comes, it goes, we know if it depart But by the warmer light and quicken'd heart.