"I swear (and else may insects prick Each leaf into a gall) This girl, for whom your heart is sick, Is three times worth them all; And down the way you used to come, She look'd with discontent. "She left the novel half-uncut Upon the rosewood shelf; "For those and theirs, by Nature's law, She left the new piano shut : Have faded long ago; But in these latter springs I saw Your own Olivia blow, She could not please herself. "Then ran she, gamesome as the colt, And livelier than a lark "From when she gamboll'd on the greens, She sent her voice thro' all the holt A baby-germ, to when The maiden blossoms of her teens Could number five from ten. O, hide thy knotted knees in fern, And from thy topmost branch discern But thou, whereon I carved her name, "O yesterday, you know, the fair "And with him Albert came on his. I look'd at him with joy : As cowslip unto oxlip is, So seems she to the boy. Before her, and the park. "A light wind chased her on the wing, And in the chase grew wild, As close as might be would he cling "But light as any wind that blows So fleetly did she stir, The flower, she touch'd on, dipt and rose, And turn'd to look at her. "And here she came, and round me play'd, And sang to me the whole Of those three stanzas that you made And in a fit of frolic mirth She strove to span my waist: Alas, I was so broad of girth, I could not be embraced. "I wish'd myself the fair young beech "Yet seem'd the pressure thrice as sweet O muffle round thy knees with fern, But tell me, did she read the name "O yes, she wander'd round and round "She had not found me so remiss; But lightly issuing thro', I would have paid her kiss for kiss, With usury thereto.' O flourish high, with leafy towers, O flourish, hidden deep in fern, A thousand thanks for what I learn ""T is little more: the day was warm; At last, tired out with play, She sank her head upon her arm He lies beside thee on the grass. O kiss him once for me. "O kiss him twice and thrice for me, Step deeper yet in herb and fern, This fruit of thine by Love is blest, I kiss it twice, I kiss it thrice, "Her eyelids dropp'd their silken eaves. To riper life may magnetize I breathed upon her eyes Thro' all the summer of my leaves A welcome mix'd with sighs. "I took the swarming sound of life "Sometimes I let a sunbeam slip, "A third would glimmer on her neck To make the necklace shine; Another slid, a sunny fleck, From head to ankle fine. "Then close and dark my arms I spread, "But in a pet she started up, "And yet it was a graceful gift - "I shook him down because he was The finest on the tree. The baby-oak within. But thou, while kingdoms overset, Or lapse from hand to hand, Thy leaf shall never fail, nor yet Thine acorn in the land. May never saw dismember thee, Nor wielded axe disjoint, That art the fairest-spoken tree From here to Lizard-point. O rock upon thy towery top All throats that gurgle sweet! All starry culmination drop Balm-dews to bathe thy feet! All grass of silky feather grow And while he sinks or swells The full south-breeze around thee blow The sound of minster bells. The fat earth feed thy branchy root, That under deeply strikes! The northern morning o'er thee shoot, Nor ever lightning char thy grain, Low thunders bring the mellow rain, And hear me swear a solemn oath, For some blind glimpse of freedom work itself Thro' madness, hated by the wise, to law System and empire? Sin itself be found The cloudy porch oft opening on the Sun? And only he, this wonder, dead, become Mere highway dust? or year by year alone Sit brooding in the ruins of a life, Nightmare of youth, the spectre of himself? If this were thus, if this, indeed, were all, Better the narrow brain, the stony heart, The staring eye glazed o'er with sapless days, The long mechanic pacings to and fro, The Sun will run his orbit, and the Moon Her circle. Wait, and Love himself will bring The drooping flower of knowledge changed to fruit Ill-fated that I am, what lot is mine Whose foresight preaches peace, my heart so slow To feel it! For how hard it seem'd to me, When eyes, love-languid thro' half-tears, would dwell One earnest, earnest moment upon mine, Then not to dare to see! when thy low voice, Faltering, would break its syllables, to keep My own full-tuned, - hold passion in a leash, And not leap forth and fall about thy neck, And on thy bosom, (deep-desired relief!) Rain out the heavy mist of tears, that weigh'd Upon my brain, my senses and my soul ! For Love himself took part against himself crost Till now the dark was worn, and overhead And found him in Llanberis: then we Among her stars to hear us; stars that : Spun round in station, but the end had come. O then like those, who clench their Upon their dissolution, we two rose, Between the lakes, and clamber'd halt way up The counter side; and that same song of He told me; for I banter'd him, and swore Cram us with all," but count not me the To which "They call me what they will," he said: "But I was born too late: the fair new forms, |