Book V Mrs. Kilroy of Ilverthorpe
Face to face in my chamber, my silent chamber, I saw her:
God and she and I only, there I sat down to draw her Soul through
The clefts of confession—“Speak, I am holding thee fast,
As the angel of recollection shall do it at last!”
“My cup is blood-red
With my sin,” she said,
“And I pour it out to the bitter lees.
As if the angel of judgment stood over me strong at last
Or as thou wert as these,”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Howbeit all is not lost
The warm noon ends in frost
And worldly tongues of promise,
Like sheep-bells die from us
On the desert hills cloud-crossed:
Yet through the silence shall
Pierce the death-angel’s call,
And “Come up hither,” recover all.
Heart, wilt thou go?
I go!
Broken hearts triumph so.
—Ibid.