Patient of ill, and death, and scorn, And that my sin was as a thorn Among the thorns that girt Thy brow, Wounding Thy soul. That even now,
In this extremest misery
Of ignorance, I should require
A sign! and if a bolt of fire
Would rive the slumbrous summer noon While I do pray to Thee alone,
Think my belief would stronger grow!
Is not my human pride brought low? The boastings of my spirit still? The joy I had in my free-will
All cold, and dead, and corpse-like grown And what is left to me but Thou, And faith in Thee? Men pass me by; Christians with happy countenances And children all seem full of Thee ! And women smile with saint-like glances Like Thine own mother's when she bow'd Above Thee, on that happy morn When angels spake to men aloud, And Thou and peace to earth were born. Good-will to me as well as all
I one of them; my brothers they; Brothers in Christ- a world of peace And confidence, day after day;
And trust and hope till things should cease, And then one Heaven receive us all.
How sweet to have a common faith! To hold a common scorn of death! And at a burial to hear
The creaking cords which wound and eat Into my human heart, whene'er Earth goes to earth, with grief, not fear, With hopeful grief, were passing sweet!
Thrice happy state again to be The trustful infant on the knee, Who lets his rosy fingers play About his mother's neck, and knows Nothing beyond his mother's eyes! They comfort him by night and day; They light his little life alway; He hath no thought of coming woes; He hath no care of life or death; Scarce outward signs of joy arise, Because the Spirit of happiness And perfect rest so inward is; And loveth so his innocent heart, Her temple and her place of birth, Where she would ever wish to dwell, Life of the fountain there, beneath Its salient springs, and far apart,
To one who heeds not, who can save But will not? Great in faith, and strong Against the grief of circumstance Wert thou, and yet unheard. What if Thou pleadest still, and seest me drive Thro' utter dark a full-sail'd skiff, Unpiloted i' the echoing dance
Of reboant whirlwinds, stooping low Unto the death, not sunk! I know At matins and at evensong,
That thou, if thou wert yet alive, In deep and daily prayers wouldst strive To reconcile me with thy God. Albeit, my hope is gray, and cold At heart, thou wouldest murmur still Bring this lamb back into Thy fold, My Lord, if so it be Thy will.' Wouldst tell me I must brook the rod And chastisement of human pride;
'Yet,' said I, in my morn of youth, The unsunn'd freshness of my strength, 140 When I went forth in quest of truth, 'It is man's privilege to doubt, If so be that from doubt at length Truth may stand forth unmoved of change, An image with profulgent brows And perfect limbs, as from the storm Of running fires and fluid range Of lawless airs, at last stood out This excellence and solid form Of constant beauty. For the ox Feeds in the herb, and sleeps, or fills The horned valleys all about, And hollows of the fringed hills In summer heats, with placid lows Unfearing, till his own blood flows About his hoof. And in the flocks The lamb rejoiceth in the year, And raceth freely with his fere, And answers to his mother's calls From the flower'd furrow. In a time Of which he wots not, run short pains
Thro' his warm heart; and then, from
He knows not, on his light there falls A shadow; and his native slope, Where he was wont to leap and climb, Floats from his sick and filmed eyes, And something in the darkness draws His forehead earthward, and he dies. Shall man live thus, in joy and hope As a young lamb, who cannot dream, Living, but that he shall live on? Shall we not look into the laws Of life and death, and things that seem, And things that be, and analyze Our double nature, and compare All creeds till we have found the one, If one there be?' Ay me! I fear All may not doubt, but everywhere Some must clasp idols. Yet, my God, Whom call I idol? Let Thy dove Shadow me over, and my sins Be unremember'd, and Thy love Enlighten me. O, teach me yet Somewhat before the heavy clod Weighs on me, and the busy fret Of that sharp-headed worm begins In the gross blackness underneath.
O weary life! O weary death! O spirit and heart made desolate ! O damned vacillating state!
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
In 1830 the title was 'We are Free' and the two stanzas were printed as one; omitted in 1842, but afterwards restored.
THE winds, as at their hour of birth,
Leaning upon the ridged sea, Breathed low around the rolling earth
With mellow preludes, ' We are free.'
The streams, through many a lilied row Down-carolling to the crisped sea, Low-tinkled with a bell-like flow Atween the blossoms, 'We are free.'
In 1842 'purfled' was changed to' gathered.'
AIRY, fairy Lilian, Flitting, fairy Lilian, When I ask her if she love me, Claps her tiny hands above me,
Laughing all she can;
She 'll not tell me if she love me, Cruel little Lilian.
When my passion seeks Pleasance in love-sighs, She, looking thro' and thro' me Thoroughly to undo me,
Smiling, never speaks: So innocent-arch, so cunning-simple, From beneath her gathered wimple Glancing with black-beaded eyes, Till the lightning laughters dimple
The baby-roses in her cheeks; Then away she flies.
Prythee weep, May Lilian! Gaiety without eclipse Wearieth me, May Lilian; Thro' my very heart it thrilleth When from crimson-threaded lips Silver-treble laughter trilleth: Prythee weep, May Lilian!
Praying all I can,
If prayers will not hush thee, Airy Lilian,
Like a rose-leaf I will crush thee, Fairy Lilian.
Tennyson's mother was the basis of this portrait.
EYES not down-dropt nor over-bright, but fed
With the clear-pointed flame of chastity, Clear, without heat, undying, tended by
Pure vestal thoughts in the translucent fane
Of her still spirit; locks not wide-dispread, Madonna-wise on either side her head;
Sweet lips whereon perpetually did reign
The summer calm of golden charity, Were fixed shadows of thy fixed mood,
Revered Isabel, the crown and head, The stately flower of female fortitude, Of perfect wifehood and pure lowlihead.
The intuitive decision of a bright
And thorough-edged intellect to part Error from crime; a prudence to withhold;
The laws of marriage character'd in gold
Upon the blanched tablets of her heart; A love still burning upward, giving light To read those laws; an accent very low In blandishment, but a most silver flow Of subtle-paced counsel in distress, Right to the heart and brain, tho' undescried,
Winning its way with extreme gentle
Thro' all the outworks of suspicious pride; A courage to endure and to obey; A hate of gossip parlance, and of sway, Crown'd Isabel, thro' all her placid life, The queen of marriage, a most perfect wife.
The mellow'd reflex of a winter moon; A clear stream flowing with a muddy one,
'Mariana in the moated grange.' Measure for Measure.
WITH blackest moss the flower-plots Were thickly crusted, one and all; The rusted nails fell from the knots
That held the pear to the gable-wall. The broken sheds look'd sad and strange: Unlifted was the clinking latch; Weeded and worn the ancient thatch Upon the lonely moated grange.
She only said, 'My life is dreary, He cometh not,' she said; She said, 'I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!'
Her tears fell with the dews at even;
Her tears fell ere the dews were dried; She could not look on the sweet heaven, Either at morn or eventide. After the flitting of the bats,
When thickest dark did trance the sky, She drew her casement-curtain by, And glanced athwart the glooming flats. 20 She only said, 'The night is dreary, He cometh not,' she said; She said, 'I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!'
Upon the middle of the night,
Waking she heard the night-fowl crow; The cock sung out an hour ere light;
From the dark fen the oxen's low
Was sloping toward his western bower. 80 Then said she, 'I am very dreary, He will not come,' she said; She wept, 'I am aweary, aweary, O God, that I were dead!'
CLEAR-HEADED friend, whose joyful scorn, Edged with sharp laughter, cuts atwain The knots that tangle human creeds, The wounding cords that bind and strain The heart until it bleeds, Ray-fringed eyelids of the morn
Roof not a glance so keen as thine; If aught of prophecy be mine, Thou wilt not live in vain.
Low-cowering shall the Sophist sit;
Falsehood shall bare her plaited brow; Fair-fronted Truth shall droop not now With shrilling shafts of subtle wit. Nor martyr-flames, nor trenchant swords Can do away that ancient lie;
A gentler death shall Falsehood die, Shot thro' and thro' with cunning words.
Weak Truth a-leaning on her crutch, Wan, wasted Truth in her utmost need, Thy kingly intellect shall feed, Until she be an athlete bold, And weary with a finger's touch
Those writhed limbs of lightning speed; Like that strange angel which of old, Until the breaking of the light, Wrestled with wandering Israel,
Past Yabbok brook the livelong night, And heaven's mazed signs stood still In the dim tract of Penuel.
THOU art not steep'd in golden languors, No tranced summer calm is thine, Ever varying Madeline.
Thro' light and shadow thou dost range, Sudden glances, sweet and strange, Delicious spites and darling angers, And airy forms of flitting change.
Smiling, frowning, evermore, Thou art perfect in love-lore. Revealings deep and clear are thine Of wealthy smiles; but who may know Whether smile or frown be fleeter ? Whether smile or frown be sweeter, Who may know?
Frowns perfect-sweet along the brow Light-glooming over eyes divine, Like little clouds sun-fringed, are thine, Ever varying Madeline.
Thy smile and frown are not aloof From one another,
Each to each is dearest brother; Hues of the silken sheeny woof Momently shot into each other. All the mystery is thine; Smiling, frowning, evermore, Thou art perfect in love-lore, Ever varying Madeline.
A subtle, sudden flame,
By veering passion fann'd,
About thee breaks and dances: When I would kiss thy hand, The flush of anger'd shame
O'erflows thy calmer glances, And o'er black brows drops down A sudden-curved frown: But when I turn away, Thou, willing me to stay,
Wooest not, nor vainly wranglest, But, looking fixedly the while, All my bounding heart entanglest In a golden-netted smile; Then in madness and in bliss, If my lips should dare to kiss Thy taper fingers amorously, Again thou blushest angrily ; And o'er black brows drops down A sudden-curved frown.
WHEN cats run home and light is come, And dew is cold upon the ground,
And the far-off stream is dumb, And the whirring sail goes round, And the whirring sail goes round; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.
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