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As Caught By a Nymph
I own many books which bear traces of their former owners and most dearly loved by me are those traces which seems to be, or obviously are, inscribed by a lover to his, or her, beloved.
In my very good copy of Swinburne’s Poems—one volume of an undated two volumes edition of the great poet’s works issued by David McKay, of Philadelphia, around the late Nineteenth century, with purple boards in textured cloth, the name of the author in a gold wreath on front and gold lettering on spine, top edges gilt, tissue-protected frontispiece portrait—many passages are carefully marked and sometimes underlined, and above, aside or under the text, arranged in double columns, many notations of various length are scrupolously and minutely handwritten in pencil.
The following passage from Joyous Gard, Part the Sixth of Tristram of Lyonesse, pages 370-371, is, I dare say, lovingly and reverently marked in pencil:
Soft as at noon the slow sea's rise and fall,
He hears in spirit a song that none but he
Hears from the mystic mouth of Nimue
Shed like a consecration; and his heart,
Hearing, is made for love's sake as a part
Of that far singing, and the life thereof
Part of that life that feeds the world with love:
Yea, heart in heart is molten, hers and his,
Into the world's heart and the soul that is
Beyond or sense or vision; and their breath
Stirs the soft springs of deathless life and death,
Death that bears life, and change that brings forth seed
Of life to death and death to life indeed,
As blood recircling through the unsounded veins
Of earth and heaven with all their joys and pains.
And under the text, on page 371, is more lovingly and more reverently handwritten the following comment, which seems to be inspired by a sudden awareness…
No embraces and no kisses other than yours could make of such a love something more than a dream, nay, a rapturous time of life lived in body and mind bidding the time to stand still, because I know you live in body and mind the awareness that yourself are the very mystery in Nimue’s song, and only such a woman as yourself could unrestrainingly share such a wisdom with her lover.