ABSENCE

HERE, ever since you went abroad,
If there be change, no change I see,
I only walk our wonted road,
The road is only walk'd by me.

Yes; I forgot'; a change there is--
Was it of that you bade me tell?
I catch at times, at times I miss

The sight, the tone, I know so well.

Only two months since you stood here!
Two shortest months! Then tell me

PROUD word you never spoke, but you will speak Four not exempt from pride some future day. Resting on one white hand a warm wet cheek Over my open volume you will say,

"This man loved me!" then rise and trip

away.

1846.

Walter Savage Landor

13

SEPARATION

THERE is a mountain and a wood between us,
Where the lone shepherd and late bird

have seen us

Morning and noon and even-tide repass. Between us now the mountain and the wood Seem standing darker than last year they stood, And say we must not cross-alas! alas!

1853.

Walter Savage Landor.

T

"DEATH STANDS ABOVE ME"

DEATH stands above me, whispering low

I know not what into my ear:

Of his strange language all I know
Is, there is not a word of fear.

1853.

Walter Savage Landor.

"I WONDER NOT THAT YOUTH REMAINS".

1853.

I WONDER not that Youth remains
With you, wherever else she flies:
Where could she find such fair domains,
Where bask beneath, such sunny eyes?,
Walter Savage Landor.

ON HIS SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTH

DAY

I STROVE with none; for none was worth my
strife,

Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art;
I warmed both hands before the fire of life,
It sinks, and I am ready to depart.

1853.

Walter Savage Lander.

FORBEARANCE

HAST thou named all the birds without a gun? Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk? At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse? Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust? And loved so well a high behavior,

In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained,

Nobility more nobly to repay?

O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine!

1842.

Ralph Waldo Emerson,

DAYS

DAUGHTERS of Time, the hypocritic Days,
Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes,
And marching single in an endless file,
Bring diadems and fagots in their hands.
To each they offer gifts after his will,
Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds
them all.

I, in my pleached garden, watched the pomp,
Forgot my morning wishes, hastily

Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day
Turned and departed silent. I, too late,
Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn.

1858.

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

THE TEST

I HUNG my verses in the wind,

Time and tide their faults may find.

All were winnowed through and through,
Five lines lasted sound and true;

Five were smelted in a pot

Than the South more fierce and hot;

These the siroc could not melt,

Fire their fiercer flaming felt,

1861.

And the meaning was more white
Than July's meridian light.

Sunshine cannot bleach the snow,
Nor time unmake what poets know.
Have you eyes to find the five
Which five hundred did survive?

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

FLOWER IN THE CRANNIED WALL

FLOWER in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the crannies,

I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower-but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

"WITH WHOM IS NO VARIABLENESS. NEITHER SHADOW

1862.

OF TURNING"

Ir fortifies my soul to know

That, though I perish, Truth is so:
That, howsoe'er I stray and range,
Whate'er I do, Thou dost not change.
I steadier step when I recall

That, if I slip, Thou dost not fall.

Arthur Hugh Clough