PYRAMUS AND THISBE

'Now Pyramus and Thisbe, he of all
The fine young men the handsomest, and she
The fairest girls of all the fabled East,
Lived next door to each other in that city^*
Whose high brick walls Semiramis once built.
As neighbours, step by step acquaintance grew;
Love ripened; wedding torches would have flamed
But for their fathers' ban: yet never ban
Could quench the mutual flame that fired them both.
They spoke by signs; they had no go-between;
Their fire the more concealed, the fiercer raged.
Between the houses was a common wall,
Flawed with a narrow chink long years ago,
When it was built. This chink, so long unnoticed--
But what does love not see? --those lovers found
And made of it their voices' passageway,
And safely flowed the whispered words of love;
And often, when on her side Thisbe stood
And Pyramus on his, eager to catch
Each other's breath, they said "O jealous wall,
Why thwart fond hearts? Why grudge to let us meet,
Or open, at least, to give our kisses room?
Yet we are grateful, for we owe to you
A pathway for sweet words of lovers true."
So, on their separate sides, they talked in vain
Till nightfall, then "goodbye", and on the wall
Each printed kisses that could never meet.
The rising dawn had dimmed the lamps of night,
And the sun's beams had dried the frosty grass;
Back to their place the came; then whispering low
Their sorry troubles, they resolve, that night
When all is still, to elude their guardians,
Steal out of doors and, once outside, to leave
The city too, and lest they miss the way
In the open fields, to meet at Ninus' tomb^*
And hide beneath a tree. A tree was there
Laden with snow-white fruit, a mulberry;
And close beside the tree a fresh cool spring.

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