Canto 12Estelle
Book 1. Part One - England and Baroda 1883 – 1898
Songs to Myrtilla
Ushers the firstborn of the radiant year.
Haply his feet that grind the breaking mould,
May brush the dead grass on thy secret bier,
5Haply his joyless fingers wan and cold
Caress the ruined masses of thy hair,
Pale child of winter, dead ere youth was old.
Art thou so desolate in that bitter air
That even his breath feels warm upon thy face?
10Ah till the daffodil is born, forbear,
And I will meet thee in that lonely place.
Then the grey dawn shall end my hateful days
And death admit me to the silent ways.
Estelle
15Why do thy lucid eyes survey,
Estelle, their sisters in the milky way?
The blue heavens cannot see
Thy beauty nor the planets praise.
Blindly they walk their old accustomed ways.
20Turn hither for felicity.
My body’s earth thy vernal power declares,
My spirit is a heaven of thousand stars,
And all these lights are thine and open doors on thee.