<h2><SPAN name="page18"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>ASTROLABIUS<br/> <span class="GutSmall">(THE CHILD OF ABELARD AND HELOISE)</span></h2>
<h3>I</h3>
<p class="poetry">I wrenched from a passing comet in its
flight,<br/>
By that great force of two mad hearts aflame,<br/>
A soul incarnate, back to earth you came,<br/>
To glow like star-dust for a little night.<br/>
Deep shadows hide you wholly from our sight;<br/>
The centuries leave nothing but your name,<br/>
Tinged with the lustre of a splendid shame,<br/>
That blazed oblivion with rebellious light.</p>
<p class="poetry">The mighty passion that became your cause,<br/>
Still burns its lengthening path across the
years;<br/>
We feel its raptures, and we see its tears<br/>
And ponder on its retributive laws.<br/>
Time keeps that deathless story ever new;<br/>
Yet finds no answer, when we ask of you.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="page19"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>II</h3>
<p class="poetry">At Argenteuil, I saw the lonely cell<br/>
Where Heloise dreamed through her broken rest,<br/>
That baby lips pulled at her undried breast.<br/>
It needed but my woman’s heart to tell<br/>
Of those long vigils and the tears that fell<br/>
When aching arms reached out in fruitless quest,<br/>
As after flight, wings brood an empty nest.<br/>
(So well I know that sorrow, ah, so well.)</p>
<p class="poetry">Across the centuries there comes no sound<br/>
Of that vast anguish; not one sigh or word<br/>
Or echo of the mother loss has stirred,<br/>
The sea of silence, lasting and profound.<br/>
Yet to each heart, that once has felt this grief,<br/>
Sad Memory restores Time’s missing leaf.</p>
<h3>III</h3>
<p class="poetry">But what of you? Who took the
mother’s place<br/>
When sweet expanding love its object sought?<br/>
Was there a voice to tell her tragic lot,<br/>
And did you ever look upon her face?<br/>
<SPAN name="page20"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>Was yours
a cloistered seeking after grace?<br/>
Or in the flame of adolescent thought<br/>
Were Abelard’s departed passions caught<br/>
To burn again in you and leave their trace?</p>
<p class="poetry">Conceived in nature’s bold primordial
way<br/>
(As in their revolutions, suns create),<br/>
You came to earth, a soul immaculate,<br/>
Baptized in fire, with some great part to play.<br/>
What was that part, and wherefore hid from us,<br/>
Immortal mystery, Astrolabius!</p>
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