XVII

Out of doors into the night! 
        On to the maze
        Of the wild wood-ways,
Not turning to left nor right
>From the pathway, blind with sight—­

XVIII

Making thro’ rain and wind
        O’er the broken shrubs,
        ’Twixt the stems and stubs,
With a still, composed, strong mind,
Nor a care for the world behind—­ 90

XIX

Swifter and still more swift,
        As the crowding peace
        Doth to joy increase
In the wide blind eyes uplift
Thro’ the darkness and the drift!

XX

While I—­to the shape, I too
        Feel my soul dilate
        Nor a whit abate,
And relax not a gesture due,
As I see my belief come true. 100

XXI

For, there! have I drawn or no
        Life to that lip? 
        Do my fingers dip
In a flame which again they throw
On the cheek that breaks a-glow?

XXII

Ha! was the hair so first? 
        What, unfilleted,
        Made alive, and spread
Through the void with a rich outburst,
Chestnut gold-interspersed? 110

XXIII

Like the doors of a casket-shrine,
        See, on either side,
        Her two arms divide
Till the heart betwixt makes sign,
Take me, for I am thine!

XXIV

“Now—­now”—­the door is heard! 
        Hark, the stairs! and near—­
        Nearer—­and here—­
“Now!” and at call the third
She enters without a word. 120

XXV

On doth she march and on
        To the fancied shape;
        It is, past escape,
Herself, now:  the dream is done
And the shadow and she are one.

XXVI

First I will pray.  Do Thou
        That ownest the soul,
        Yet wilt grant control
To another, nor disallow
For a time, restrain me now! 130

XXVII

I admonish me while I may,
        Not to squander guilt,
        Since require Thou wilt
At my hand its price one day! 
What the price is, who can say?

Notes:  “Mesmerism.”  With a continuous tension of will, whose unbroken concentration impregnates the very structure of the poem, a mesmerist describes the processes of the act by which he summons shape and soul of the woman he desires; and then reverent perception of the sacredness of the soul awes him from trespassing upon another’s individuality.