If questioned, aught of what he cared to know. And dull the voyage was with long delays, The vessel scarce sea-worthy; but evermore His fancy fled before the lazy wind
Returning, till beneath a clouded moon He like a lover down thro' all his blood Drew in the dewy meadowy morning-breath Of England, blown across her ghostly wall: And that same morning officers and men Levied a kindly tax upon themselves, Pitying the lonely man, and gave him it: Then moving up the coast they landed him, Ev'n in that harbor whence he sail'd before.
There Enoch spoke no word to any one,
But homeward - home what home? had he a home? — His home, he walk'd. Bright was that afternoon,
Sunny but chill; till drawn thro' either chasm
Where either haven open'd on the deeps,
Roll'd a sea-haze and whelm'd the world in gray; Cut off the length of highway on before,
And left but narrow breadth to left and right Of wither'd holt or tilth or pasturage. On the nigh-naked tree the robin piped Disconsolate, and thro' the dripping haze The dead weight of the dead leaf bore it down: Thicker the drizzle grew, deeper the gloom; Last, as it seem'd, a great mist-blotted light Flared on him, and he came upon the place,
Then down the long street having slowly stolen, His heart foreshadowing all calamity, His eyes upon the stones, he reach'd the home Where Annie lived and loved him, and his babes In those far-off seven happy years were born; But finding neither light nor murmur there (A bill of sale gleam'd thro' the drizzle) crept Still downward thinking, "dead, or dead to me!"
Down to the pool and narrow wharf he went, Seeking a tavern which of old he knew,
A front of timber-crust antiquity,
So propt, worm-eaten, ruinously old,
He thought it must have gone; but he was gone Who kept it; and his widow, Miriam Lane, With daily-dwindling profits held the house; A haunt of brawling seamen once, but now Stiller, with yet a bed for wandering men. There Enoch rested silent many days.
But Miriam Lane was good and garrulous, Nor let him be, but often breaking in, Told him, with other annals of the port, Not knowing-Enoch was so brown, so bow'd, So broken all the story of his house. His baby's death, her growing poverty, How Philip put her little ones to school, And kept them in it, his long wooing her, Her slow consent, and marriage, and the birth Of Philip's child: and o'er his countenance No shadow past, nor motion: any one, Regarding, well had deem'd he felt the tale Less than the teller; only when she closed, "Enoch, poor man, was cast away and lost, He, shaking his gray head pathetically, Repeated muttering, "cast away and lost;" Again in deeper inward whispers, "lost!"
But Enoch yearned to see her face again; "If I might look on her sweet face again And know that she is happy." So the thought Haunted and harass'd him, and drove him forth, At evening when the dull November day Was growing duller twilight, to the hill. There he sat down gazing on all below; There did a thousand memories roll upon him, Unspeakable for sadness. By and by The ruddy square of comfortable light, Far-blazing from the rear of Philip's house, Allured him, as the beacon-blaze allures The bird of passage, till he madly strikes Against it, and beats out his weary life.
For Philip's dwelling fronted on the street, The latest house to landward; but behind, With one small gate that open'd on the waste, Flourish'd a little garden square and wall'd; And in it throve an ancient evergreen,
A yewtree, and all round it ran a walk Of shingle, and a walk divided it:
But Enoch shunn'd the middle walk and stole
Up by the wall, behind the yew; and thence That which he better might have shunn'd, if griefs Like his have worse or better, Enoch saw.
For cups and silver on the burnish'd board Sparkled and shone; so genial was the hearth: And on the right hand of the hearth he saw Philip, the slighted suitor of old times, Stout, rosy, with his babe across his knees; And o'er her second father stoopt a girl, A later but a loftier Annie Lee,
Fair-haired and tall, and from her lifted hand Dangled a length of ribbon and a ring
To tempt the babe, who rear'd his creasy arms, Caught at, and ever miss'd it, and they laugh'd: And on the left hand of the hearth he saw The mother glancing often toward her babe, But turning now and then to speak with him, Her son, who stood beside her tall and strong, And saying that which pleased him, for he smiled.
Now when the dead man come to life beheld His wife his wife, no more, and saw the babe Hers, yet not his, upon the father's knee, And all the warmth, the peace, the happiness, And his own children tall and beautiful, And him, that other, reigning in his place, Lord of his rights and of his children's love Then he, tho' Miriam Lane had told him all, Because things seen are mightier than things heard, Stagger'd and shook, holding the branch, and fear'd To send abroad a shrill and terrible cry,
Which in one moment, like the blast of doom, Would shatter all the happiness of the hearth.
He therefore turning softly like a thief, Lest the harsh shingle should grate underfoot, And feeling all along the garden wall,
Lest he should swoon and tumble and be found, Crept to the gate, and open'd it, and closed, As lightly as a sick man's chamber-door,
Behind him, and came out upon the waste.
And there he would have knelt, but that his knees Were feeble, so that falling prone he dug
His fingers into the wet earth, and pray'd.
"Too hard to bear! why did they take me thence? O God Almighty, blessed Saviour, Thou That didst uphold me on my lonely isle, Uphold me, Father, in my loneliness A little longer! aid me, give me strength Not to tell her, never to let her know. Help me not to break in upon her peace. My children too! must I not speak to these? They know me not. I should betray myself. Never: no father's kiss for me the girl
So like her mother, and the boy, my son."
There speech and thought and nature fail'd a little And he lay tranced; but when he rose and paced Back toward his solitary home again,
All down the long and narrow street he went Beating it in upon his weary brain,
As tho' it were the burthen of a song, "Not to tell her, never to let her know."
He was not all unhappy. His resolve Upbore him, and firm faith, and evermore Prayers from a living source within the wall, And beating up thro' all the bitter world, Like fountains of sweet water in the sea, Kept him a living soul. "This miller's wife," He said to Miriam, "that you spoke about, Has she no fear that her first husband lives?" "Ay, ay, poor soul," said Miriam, “fear enow! If you could tell her you had seen him dead,
Why, that would be her comfort;" and he thought "After the Lord has call'd me she shall know, I wait His time;" and Enoch set himself, Scorning an alms, to work whereby to live. Almost to all things could he turn his hand. Cooper he was and carpenter, and wrought To make the boatmen fishing-nets, or help'd At lading and unlading the tall barks,
That brought the stinted commerce of those days; Thus earn'd a scanty living for himself: Yet since he did but labor for himself,
Work without hope, there was not life in it Whereby the man could live; and as the year Roll'd itself round again to meet the day When Enoch had return'd, a languor came Upon him, gentle sickness, gradually Weakening the man, till he could do no more, But kept the house, his chair, and last his bed, And Enoch bore his weakness cheerfully. For sure no gladlier does the stranded wreck See thro' the gray skirts of a lifting squall The boat that bears the hope of life approach To save the life despair'd of, than he saw Death dawning on him, and the close of all.
For thro' that dawning gleam'd a kindlier hope On Enoch thinking, "after I am gone,
Then may she learn I lov'd her to the last." He call'd aloud for Miriam Lane and said "Woman, I have a secret only swear, Before I tell you swear upon the book Not to reveal it, till you see me dead." "Dead," clamor'd the good woman, “hear him talk; I warrant, man, that we shall bring you round.' "Swear," added Enoch sternly, "on the book." And on the book, half-frighted, Miriam swore. Then Enoch rolling his gray eyes upon her, "Did you know Enoch Arden of this town?" "Know him?" she said, "I knew him far away. Ay, ay, I mind him coming down the street; Held his head high, and cared for no man, he.” Slowly and sadly Enoch answer'd her:
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