ON HIS FORTUNE IN LOVING HER.
I DID not choose thee, dearest. It was Love
That made the choice, not I. Mine eyes were blind
As a rude shepherd's who to some lone grove
His offering brings and cares not at what shrine
He bends his knee. The gifts alone were mine;
The rest was Love's. He took me by the hand,
And fired the sacrifice, and poured the wine,
And spoke the words I might not understand.
I was unwise in all but the dear chance
Which was my fortune, and the blind desire
Which led my foolish steps to love's abode,
And youth's sublime unreasoned prescience
Which raised an altar and inscribed in fire
Its dedication "to the unknown god."
Love Sonnets of Proteus. (K. Paul.)
But all that I care for,
And all that I know,
Is that, without wherefore,
I worship thee so.
Through granite as breaketh
A tree to the ray,
As a dreamer forsaketh
The grief of the day,
My soul in its fever
Escapes unto thee; O dream to the griever, O light to the tree !
A twofold existence
I am where thou art; Hark, hear in the distance The beat of my heart!
LORD LYTTON. Poetical Works. (Routledge.)
As the flight of a river
That flows to the sea,
My soul rushes ever
In tumult to thee.
A twofold existence
I am where thou art; My heart in the distance
Beats close to thy heart.
Look up, I am near thee,
I gaze on thy face;
I see thee, I hear thee,
I feel thine embrace.
As a magnet's control on
The steel it draws to it,
Is the charm of thy soul on
The thoughts that pursue it.
And absence but brightens
The eyes that I miss,
And custom but heightens
The spell of thy kiss.
It is not from duty,
Though that may be owed,
It is not from beauty,
Though that be bestowed;
ON heaven's steps of beryl, poised for flight,
An angel stood; but ere his wings he spread
Close to his side did his twin angel light,
Who from the darkening earth had newly sped;
Thy guardian spirit, seeing that thy head
Was bent in prayer, so knew thee safe from harm,
Homesick to heaven awhile he quickly fled,
Longing for native peace and love and calm.
So spake each angel of his human charge,
Telling of hopes and fears, of joy and woe,
Then parting, he who left the shining marge
To watch o'er me, his care, swift sped below,
And as I slept, he in my sleeping ear
Whispered of thee, and straight I dreamt thee
B. MONTGOMERIE RANKING. Fulgencius. (Newman.)
I SPOKE to you with all my soul, and when
I look at you 'tis still my soul you see.
ARTHUR W. E. O'SHAUGHNESSY. Songs of a Worker. (Chatto and Windus.)
'She has braided her tresses, and through her tears
Looked away to the West, for years, the years
That I have wrought where the sun tans brown.
She has waked by night, she has watched by day,
She has wept and wondered at my delay,
Alone and in tears, with her head held down,
Where the ships sail out, and the seas swirl in,
Forgetting to knit and refusing to spin.
She shall lift her head, she shall see her lover,
She shall hear his voice like a sea that rushes,
She shall hold his gold in her hands of snow,
And down on his breast she shall hide her blushes,
And never a care shall her true heart know,
While the clods are below, or the clouds are above
her.'"
JOAQUIN MILLER.
Songs of the Sierras. (Longmans.)
AND when she turn'd on me
The sorrowing light of desolate eyes divine,
I knew in a moment what our lives must be
Henceforth. It lighten'd on me then and there.
How she was irretrievably all mine,
I hers, thro' time, become eternity.
It could not ever have been otherwise,
Gazing into those eyes.
OWEN MEREDITH.
The Wanderer. (Chapman and Hall.)
WE are pledged with scarce an endeavour,
Even to death, sweet dove;
I am thine, thou art mine, evermore.
God on His throne above
Witness our pledges of love!
G. F. ARMSTRONG. Poems: Lyrical and Dramatic. (Longmans.)
[FOR] since creation's dawn, love,
No other law might be;
But like to like is drawn, love,
As I am drawn to thee!
J. S. BLACKIE. Lyrical Poems. (D. Douglas, Edinburgh.)
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