Yet so revolves the axle of the world, ΙΟ 20 And native duty, as the good man walks Thy glad perambulation; and thou, far 523 Not sovran nor in fee of paramount power; Moons round your worlds, worlds round your suns, suns round Such satraps as in orderly degree A vaster cycle - ye, so moved, commoved, 30 One power, one tune, one time, upon one path Move with thee moving, thou, amid thy host Marchest ah whither? O God, before Whom The Maker, makest, and this fair we see 51 Back, and see Men say, Columbia, we shall hear thy guns. His Helena and Hermia. Shall we fight? Nor force nor fraud shall sunder us! O ye ΙΟ Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem, For service meetly worn; Her hair that lay along her back Her seemed she scarce had been a day The wonder was not yet quite gone her hair (To one, it is ten years of years. It was the rampart of God's house By God built over the sheer depth So high, that looking downward thence It lies in Heaven, across the flood Beneath, the tides of day and night Around her, lovers, newly met 'Mid deathless love's acclaims, Spoke evermore among themselves Their heart-remembered names; And the souls mounting up to God Went by her like thin flames. And still she bowed herself and stooped Until her bosom must have made Along her bended arm. From the fixed place of Heaven she saw Time like a pulse shake fierce 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 Through all the world. Her gaze still strove Within the gulf to pierce Its path; and now she spoke as when The stars sang in their spheres. The sun was gone now; the curled moon Was like a little feather 54 THE BLESSED DAMOZEL Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen, "Circlewise sit they, with bound locks And foreheads garlanded; Into the fine cloth white like flame To fashion the birth-robes for them "He shall fear, haply, and be dumb: To his, and tell about our love, My pride, and let me speak. "Herself shall bring us, hand in hand, To Him round whom all souls Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads Bowed with their aureoles: And angels meeting us shall sing To their citherns and citoles. 108 114 120 126 As unto a stream we will step down, And bathe there in God's sight. "There will I ask of Christ the Lord 78 Thus much for him and me: Only to live as once on earth With Love, only to be, Whose lamps are stirred continually With prayer sent up to God; As then awhile, forever now Together, I and he." 132 And see our old prayers, granted, melt Each like a little cloud. "We two will lie i' the shadow of "All this is when he comes." She ceased. That living mystic tree Within whose secret growth the Dove Is sometimes felt to be, The light thrilled towards her, fill'd With angels in strong level flight. Her eyes prayed, and she smil'd. 138 While every leaf that His plumes touch Saith His Name audibly. And then she cast her arms along The golden barriers, And laid her face between her hands, And wept. (I heard her tears.) JENNY "Vengeance of Jenny's case! Fie on her! Never - (Mrs. Quickly.) name her, child!" Lazy laughing languid Jenny, Fond of a kiss and fond of a guinea, Whose head upon my knee to-night With all our dances and the sound Of kisses which the blush between 144 This room of yours, my Jenny, looks The hours they thieve from day and night And thus it was I met with you. It was a careless life I led When rooms like this were scarce so strange Not long ago. What breeds the change, The cloud's not danced out of my brain, But while my thought runs on like this 20 30 On sorry matters best unsolved? — For sometimes, were the truth confess'd, You're thankful for a little rest, Glad from the crush to rest within, From the heart-sickness and the din Where envy's voice at virtue's pitch Mocks you because your gown is rich; And from the pale girl's dumb rebuke, Whose ill-clad grace and toil-worn look Proclaim the strength that keeps her weak, And other nights than yours bespeak; And from the wise unchildish elf, To schoolmate lesser than himself, Pointing you out, what thing you are:Yes, from the daily jeer and jar, From shame and shame's outbraving too, Is rest not sometimes sweet to you? But most from the hatefulness of man Who spares not to end what he began, Whose acts are ill and his speech ill, Who, having used you at his will, Thrusts you aside, as when I dine I serve the dishes and the wine. 50 conjectural 60 What, still so tired? Well, well then, keep Behold the lilies of the field, They toil not neither do they spin; (So doth the ancient text begin, Not of such rest as one of these Can share.) Another rest and ease Along each summer-sated path From its new lord the garden hath, Than that whose spring in blessings ran Which praised the bounteous husbandman, Ere yet, in days of hankering breath, The lilies sickened unto death. What, Jenny, are your lilies dead? Aye, and the snow-white leaves are spread 70 80 90 100 ΙΙΟ Jenny, you know the city now. A child can tell the tale there, how 140 A Lethe of the middle street? Why, Jenny, you're asleep at last! Asleep, poor Jenny, hard and fast, So young and soft and tired; so fair, With chin thus nestled in your hair, Mouth quiet, eyelids almost blue As if some sky of dreams shone through! Just as another woman sleeps! Enough to throw one's thoughts in heaps Of doubt and horror, what to say Or think, - this awful secret sway, The potter's power over the clay! For honour and dishonour made, My cousin Nell is fond of fun, And fond of dress, and change, and praise, And if her sweet eyes rich in youth 527 170 180 190 And she's the girl I'm proudest of. Who does not prize her, guard her well? The love of change, in cousin Nell, Shall find the best and hold it dear: The unconquered mirth turn quieter Not through her own, through others' woe: Of the same lump (as it is said) For honour and dishonour made, Two sister vessels. Here is one. It makes a goblin of the sun. So pure, - so fall'n! How dare to think Of the first common kindred link? Yet, Jenny, till the world shall burn It seems that all things take their turn; And who shall say but this fair tree May need, in changes that may be, Your children's children's charity? Scorned then, no doubt, as you are scorn'd! Shall no man hold his pride forewarn'd 200 210 |