SONNETS. I. THROUGH suffering and sorrow thou hast passed Save as some tree, which, in a sudden blast, Whose strength gives warrant of good fruit at last : II. WHAT were I, Love, if I were stripped of thee, Who in the grandeur of the soul believe, Without thee I were naked, bleak, and bare As yon dead cedar on the sea-cliff's brow; And Nature's teachings, which come to me now Common and beautiful as light and air, Would be as fruitless as a stream which still Slips through the wheel of some old ruined mill. |