I would I could adopt your will, See with your eyes, and set my heart Beating by yours, and drink my fill At your soul's springs,-your part, my part In life, for good and ill. No. I yearn upward, touch you close, Already how am I so far Out of that minute? Must I go Still like the thistle-ball, no bar, Onward, whenever light winds blow, Fixed by no friendly star? Just when I seemed about to learn! Where is the thread now? Off again! The old trick! Only I discern— Infinite passion, and the pain of finite hearts that yearn. Robert Browning (1812-1889] ONE WAY OF LOVE ALL June I bound the rose in sheaves. Now, rose by rose, I strip the leaves And strew them where Pauline may pass. Let them lie. Suppose they die? The chance was they might take her eye. How many a month I strove to suit She will not hear my music? So! Song My whole life long I learned to love. Those who win heaven, blest are they! 865 Robert Browning [1812-1889] "NEVER THE TIME AND THE PLACE" NEVER the time and the place And the loved one all together! This path-how soft to pace! This May-what magic weather! In a dream that loved one's face meets mine, With a furtive ear, if I strive to speak, Uncoil thee from the waking man! Do I hold the Past Thus firm and fast Yet doubt if the Future hold I can? This path so soft to pace shall lead Through the magic of May to herself indeed! -I and she! Robert Browning [1812-1889] SONG From "The Saint's Tragedy " OH! that we two were Maying Down the stream of the soft spring breeze; Like children with violets playing In the shade of the whispering trees. Oh! that we two sat dreaming On the sward of some sheep-trimmed down, Over river and mead and town. Oh! that we two lay sleeping In our nest in the churchyard sod, With our limbs at rest on the quiet earth's breast, And our souls at home with God! Charles Kingsley [1819-1875] TWICE I TOOK my heart in my hand But this once hear me speak (O my love, O my love)Yet a woman's words are weak; You should speak, not I. You took my heart in your hand With a critical eye you scanned, Then set it down, And said, "It is still unripe, Better wait awhile; Wait while the skylarks pipe, Till the corn grows brown.” As you set it down it broke- Since then, nor questioned since, I take Jessie my heart in my hand, This contemned of a man, This marred one heedless day, This heart take thou to scan Purge Thou its dross away— Whence none can pluck it out. I take my heart in my hand- I, for Thou callest such: All that I have I bring, But shall not question much. 867 Christina Georgina Rossetti [1830-1894] JESSIE WHEN Jessie comes with her soft breast, And yields the golden keys, Then is it as if God caressed Twin babes upon His knees Twin babes that, each to other pressed, Just feel the Father's arms, wherewith they both are blessed. But when I think if we must part, And all this personal dream be fled O then my heart! O then my useless heart! Would God that thou wert dead A clod insensible to joys and ills— A stone remote in some bleak gully of the hills! Thomas Edward Brown [1830-1897] THE CHESS-BOARD My little love, do you remember, Ah! still I see your soft white hand Hovering warm o'er Queen and Knight; Brave Pawns in valiant battle stand; The double Castles guard the wings; The Bishop, bent on distant things, Moves, sliding, through the fight. Our fingers touch; our glances meet, Against my cheek; your bosom sweet Ah me! the little battle's done: Dispersed is all its chivalry. Full many a move, since then, have we 'Mid Life's perplexing chequers made, And many a game with Fortune played;— This, this at least,-if this alone: That never, never, never more, As in those old still nights of yore |