WITH the same heart, I said, I'll answer thee As those, when thou shalt call me by my name— Lo, the vain promise! Is the same, the same, Perplexed and ruffled by life's strategy?
When called before, I told how hastily
I dropped my flowers, or brake off from a game, To run and answer with the smile that came At play last moment, and went on with me Through my obedience. When I answer now, I drop a grave thought;-break from solitude:- Yet still my heart goes to thee . . . ponder how .. Not as to a single good but all my good!
Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow
That no child's foot could run fast as this blood.
IF I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange And be all to me? Shall I never miss Home-talk and blessing, and the common kiss That comes to each in turn, nor count it strange, When I look up, to drop on a new range Of walls and floors. . another home than this? Nay, wilt thou fill that place by me which is Filled by dead eyes, too tender to know change? That's hardest! If to conquer love, has tried, To conquer grief tries more . . . as all things prove : For grief indeed is love, and grief beside, Alas, I have grieved so I am hard to love- Yet love me-wilt thou? Open thine heart wide, And fold within, the wet wings of thy dove.
WHEN We met first and loved, I did not build Upon the event with marble. Could it mean To last, a love set pendulous between Sorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather thrilled, Distrusting every light that seemed to gild The onward path, and feared to overlean
A finger even. And, though I have grown serene And strong since then, I think that God has willed A still renewable fear. . O love, O troth.. Lest these enclasped hands should never hold, This mutual kiss drop down between us both As an unowned thing, once the lips being cold. And Love be false! if he, to keep one oath, Must lose one joy by his life's star foretold.
PARDON, oh, pardon, that my soul should make Of all that strong divineness which I know For thine and thee, an image only so
Formed of the sand, and fit to shift and break. It is that distant years which did not take Thy sovranty, recoiling with a blow, Have forced my swimming brain to undergo Their doubt and dread, and blindly to forsake Thy purity of likeness, and distort Thy worthiest love with worthless counterfeit. As if a shipwrecked Pagan, safe in port, His guardian sea-god to commemorate, Should set a sculptured porpoise, gills a-snort, And vibrant tail, within the temple-gate.
FIRST time he kissed me, he but only kissed The fingers of this hand wherewith I write, And ever since it grew more clean and white, . Slow to world-greetings. . quick with its "Oh, list," When the angels speak. A ring of amethyst I could not wear here plainer to my sight,
Than that first kiss. The second passed in height The first, and sought the forehead, and half missed, Half falling on the hair. O beyond meed! That was the chrism of love, which love's own crown, With sanctifying sweetness, did precede.
The third, upon my lips, was folded down
In perfect, purple state! since when, indeed,
I have been proud and said, "My Love, my own."
BECAUSE thou hast the power and own'st the grace To look through and behind this mask of me, (Against which, years have beat thus blenchingly With their rains!) and behold my soul's true face, The dim and weary witness of life's race :— Because thou hast the faith and love to see, Through that same soul's distracting lethargy, The patient angel waiting for his place
In the new Heavens: because nor sin nor woe, Nor God's infliction, nor death's neighbourhood, Nor all, which others viewing, turn to go, . . Nor all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed,.. Nothing repels thee, . . Dearest, teach me so To pour out gratitude, as thou dost, good!
Он, yes! they love through all this world of ours! I will not gainsay love, called love forsooth. I have heard love talked in my early youth, And since, not so long back but that the flowers Then gathered, smell still. Mussulmans and Giaours Throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth For any weeping. Polypheme's white tooth Slips on the nut, if after frequent showers The shell is over-smooth; and not so much Will turn the thing called love, aside to hate, Or else to oblivion. But thou art not such A lover, my Beloved! thou canst wait
Through sorrow and sickness, to bring souls to touch, And think it soon when others cry "Too late.”
I THANK all who have loved me in their hearts, With thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks to all Who paused a little near the prison-wall,
To hear my music in its louder parts,
Ere they went onward, each one to the mart's
Or temple's occupation, beyond call.
But thou, who in my voice's sink and fall, When the sob took it, thy divinest Art's Own instrument, didst drop down at thy foot, To hearken what I said between my tears, . Instruct me how to thank thee!—Oh, to shoot My soul's full meaning into future years, That they should lend it utterance, and salute Love that endures! with Life that disappears!
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and Ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise; I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with
my childhood's faith;
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,-I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!-and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
BELOVED, thou hast brought me many flowers Plucked in the garden, all the summer through And winter, and it seemed as if they grew
In this close room, nor missed the sun and showers. So, in the like name of that love of ours,
Take back these thoughts, which here unfolded too, And which on warm and cold days I withdrew Front my heart's ground. Indeed, those beds and bowers
Be overgrown with bitter weeds and rue,
And wait thy weeding: yet here's eglantine, Here's ivy!—take them, as I used to do
Thy flowers, and keep them where they shall not pine; Instruct thine eyes to keep their colours true, And tell thy soul, their roots are left in mine.
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