XLI I could fix her face with a guard between, And find her soul as when friends confer, Friends-lovers that might have been. XLI For my heart had a touch of the woodland time, Wanting to sleep now over its best. Shake the whole tree in the summer-prime, But bring to the last leaf no such test ! “Hold the last fast ! ” runs the rhyme. XLII For a chance to make your little much, To gain a lover and lose a friend, Venture the tree and a myriad such, When nothing you mar but the year can mend : But a last leaf---fear to touch ! XLIII Eddying down till it find your face Be your heart henceforth its dwelling-place XLIV Worth how well, those dark grey eyes, That hair so dark and dear, how worth That a man should strive and agonise, And taste a veriest hell on earth XLV Set him a space to weary and wear, His best of hope or his worst despair, Yet end as he began. XLVI But you spared me this, like the heart you are, And filled my empty heart at a word. If two lives join, there is oft a scar, They are one and one, with a shadowy third ; One near one is too far. XLVII A moment after, and hands unseen Were hanging the night around us fast; But we knew that a bar was broken between Life and life: we were mixed at last XLVIII We caught for a moment the powers at play: They had mingled us so, for once and good, Their work was done—we might go or stay, They relapsed to their ancient mood. XLIX How all we perceive and know in it When a soul declares itself—to wit, By its fruit, the thing it does ! Be hate that fruit or love that fruit, It forwards the general deed of man : And each of the Many helps to recruit The life of the race by a general plan; Each living his own, to boot. LI I am named and known by that moment's feat ; There took my station and degree ; So grew my own small life complete, As nature obtained her best of me- LII Back again, as you mutely sit And the spirit-small hand propping it, LIII So, earth has gained by one man the more, And the gain of earth must be heaven's gain too; When autumn comes : which I mean to do ANY WIFE TO ANY HUSBAND. My love, this is the bitterest, that thou- As thine eyes say, as thy voice breaks to say- Would death, that leads me from thee, brook delay. II I have but to be by thee, and thy hand The beating of my heart to reach its place. Never, I know! Thy soul is in thy face. III Oh, I should fade—'t is willed so! Might I save, Joy to thy sense, for that was precious too, Vainly the flesh fades ; soul makes all things new. IV Who never is dishonoured in the spark While that burns on, though all the rest grow dark. So, how thou wouldst be perfect, white and clean Alike, this body given to show it by ! Couldst thou repeat a stroke and gain the sky ! And is it not the bitterer to think Although thy love was love in very deed ? Nor bid its music's loitering echo speed. VII Thou let'st the stranger's glove lie where it fell ; For thou art grateful as becomes man best : And hadst thou only heard me play one tune, With thee would such things fade as with the rest. VIII The very chair I sat on, breaks the rank ; And for all this, one little hour to thank ! IX Because thou once hast loved me—wilt thou dare “ Chance cannot change my love, nor time impair. X “ So, what if in the dusk of life that 's left, “I, a tired traveller of my sun bereft, “Look from my path when, mimicking the same, “ The fire-fly glimpses past me, come and gone? “ – Where was it till the sunset ? where anon .“ It will be at the sunrise! What 's to blame ?" XI Is it so helpful to thee? Canst thou take Put gently by such efforts at a beam ? |