FOR THIS TRUE NOBLENESS I

SEEK IN VAIN'

FOR this true nobleness I seek in vain, In woman and in man I find it not; I almost weary of my earthly lot, My life-springs are dried up with burning pain.'

Thou find'st it not? I pray thee look again,

Look inward through the depths of thine own soul.

How is it with thee? Art thou sound and whole ?

Doth narrow search show thee no earthly stain ?

BE NOBLE! and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own;
Then wilt thou see it gleam in many

Life hath no dim and lowly spot That doth not in her sunshine share.

She doeth little kindnesses,
Which most leave undone, or despise:
For naught that sets one heart at ease,
And giveth happiness or peace,
Is low-esteemèd in her eyes.

She hath no scorn of common things,
And, though she seem of other birth,
Round us her heart intwines and clings,
And patiently she folds her wings
To tread the humble paths of earth.

Blessing she is: God made her so,
And deeds of week-day holiness
Fall from her noiseless as the snow,
Nor hath she ever chanced to know
That aught were easier than to bless.

She is most fair, and thereunto
Her life doth rightly harmonize;
Feeling or thought that was not true
Ne'er made less beautiful the blue
Unclouded heaven of her eyes.

She is a woman: one in whom

The spring-time of her childish years
Hath never lost its fresh perfume,
Though knowing well that life hath room
For many blights and many tears.

I love her with a love as still
As a broad river's peaceful might,
Which, by high tower and lowly mill,
Seems following its own wayward will,
And yet doth ever flow aright.

And, on its full, deep breast serene,
Like quiet isles my duties lie;
It flows around them and between,

20

30

40

'OUR LOVE IS NOT A FADING EARTHLY FLOWER'

OUR love is not a fading earthly flower: Its winged seed dropped down from Paradise,

And, nursed by day and night, by sun and shower,

Doth momently to fresher beauty rise:
To us the leafless autumn is not bare,
Nor winter's rattling boughs lack lusty
green.

Our summer hearts make summer's fulness, where

No leaf, or bud, or blossom may be seen:
For nature's life in love's deep life doth lie,
Love, whose forgetfulness is beauty's
death,

Whose mystic key these cells of Thou and I
Into the infinite freedom openeth,
And makes the body's dark and narrow

30

We find within these souls of ours Some wild germs of a higher birth, Which in the poet's tropic heart bear flowers Whose fragrance fills the earth.

Within the hearts of all men lie

These promises of wider bliss,

Which blossom into hopes that cannot die,
In sunny hours like this.

All that hath been majestical
In life or death, since time began,
Is native in the simple heart of all,
The angel heart of man.

And thus, among the untaught poor,
Great deeds and feelings find a home,
That cast in shadow all the golden lore
Of classic Greece and Rome.

O mighty brother-soul of man, Where'er thou art, in low or high, Thy skyey arches with exulting span O'er-roof infinity!

40

old; wide

The din of battle and of slaughter rose;

slavery reunion held on the anniversary of West Indian Emancipation, and were first printed under the title given in this letter: This puts me in mind of Longfellow's suppression of his anti-slavery pieces. [These had been omitted in one edition of Longfellow's poems, published at Philadelphia.] Sydney Gay wishes to know whether I think he spoke too harshly of the affair. I think he did... and this not because I agree with what he tells me is your notion of the matter.

for I do not think that an author has a right to suppress anything that God has given him - but because I believe that Longfellow esteemed them of inferior quality to his other poems. For myself, when I was printing my second volume of poems, Owen wished to suppress a certain "Song sung at an Anti-Slavery Picnic." I never saw him, but he urged me with I know not what worldly arguments. My only answer was: "Let all the others be suppressed if you will → that I will never suppress."