The shadows curtain dusk, thy lonely rest.
I only wake
My plaint to make.

Fair land, my lover cold, doth careless take
From my shut lips his flight. Here leaves me lone
My moan to make,
My heart to break.

She ceased. But still the song did float and fade,
As failing sunshine soft, in woodland glade.
And Lilith, listening, heard--so wild, so shrill,
Yet dream-like, far, again that tinkling rill
In Paradise. And o'er her spirit swept
A sadness bitter-sweet, as 'neath the green palms crept
The wind, low-sighing, faint. As from lone nest
A bird torn pinion lifts, striving to soar
To shelter safe, so, Edenward once more
Turned Lilith's drooping thoughts.
Uprose she then,
And brooding, homeward slowly went again.

BOOK III.

Wide through her realm she walked, and glad or lorn
She mused. So, loitering, it chanced one morn
When lone she sat upon a mountain height,
One sudden stood anear, whose dark eyes bright
Upon her shone. Pallid his face, and red
His smileless lips. "Who art thou?" Lilith said,
And faint a hidden pain her hot heart stirred,
When low, and rarely sweet, his voice she heard.
She looked, half-pleased--and half in strange surprise
Shrank 'neath the gaze of those wild, starry eyes.
"Oh, dame," the stranger said, "where waters leap
Bright glancing down, I rested oft, where steep
Thy Eden o'er, bare-browed, a peak uprose.
Naught craving bloom or fruitage--nay, nor those
Frail joys Adam holds dear. One only boon
I sought of all his heritage. Fair 'neath the moon
I saw thee stand; and all about thy feet
The night her perfume spilled, soft incense meet.
Then low I sighed, when grew thy beauty on my sight,
'Some comfort yet remains, if that I might
From Adam pluck this perfect flower. Some morn--
If I (some dreamed-of morn, perchance slow-born)
This flawless bloom, white, fragrant, lustrous, pure
For ever on my breast might hold secure.'
Yea, for thy love, through darkling realms of night
I followed thee, sharing thy fearful flight
Unseen. Lo, when thy timid heart, behind
Heard echoing phantom feet upon the wind,
'Twas I, pursuing o'er the day's last brink;
Wherefore, I now am here. O Lilith, think