Works

Every time I kiss you
After a long separation
I feel
I am putting a hurried love letter
In a red mailbox.

("Qu'est-ce que Sigismond et Ladislas ont dit.")

[Bk. XV. iii. 1.]


I.

THE ADVENTURER SETS OUT.

What was it Sigismond and Ladisl'us said?
...

Except the heaven had come so near,
So seemed to choose my door,
The distance would not haunt me so;
I had not hoped before.

But just to hear the grace depart
I never thought to see,...

Except to heaven, she is nought;
Except for angels, lone;
Except to some wide-wandering bee,
A flower superfluous blown;

Except for winds, provincial;
Except by butterflies,...

Prologue

Calm and clear! the bright day is declining,
The crystal expanse of the bay,
Like a shield of pure metal, lies shining
'Twixt headlands of purple and grey,...

What various hindrances we meet
In coming to a mercy-seat!
Yet who that knows the worth of prayer,
But wishes to be often there?


Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw,...

Experiment to me
Is every one I meet.
If it contain a kernel?
The figure of a nut

Presents upon a tree,
Equally plausibly;
But meat within is requisite,
To squirrels and to me.

When first, descending from the moorlands,
I saw the Stream of Yarrow glide
Along a bare and open valley,
The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide.

When last along its banks I wandered,...

Lord Advocate.

He clench'd his pamphlets in his fist,
He quoted and he hinted,
'Till in a declamation-mist
His argument he tint it:
He gaped for't, he grap'd for't,
He fand it was awa, man;...

Ex Tenebra.


The winds have shower'd their rains upon the sod,
And flowers and trees have murmur'd as with lips.
The very silence has appeal'd to God.
In man's behalf, though smitten by His rod,...

Yet, even here, tho' Fiction rules the hour,
There shine some genuine smiles, beyond her power;
And there are tears, too--tears that Memory sheds
Even o'er the feast that mimic fancy spreads,...

Dear native regions, I foretell,
From what I feel at this farewell,
That, wheresoe'er my steps may tend,
And whensoe'er my course shall end,
If in that hour a single tie
Survive of local sympathy,...

The feeble sea-birds, blinded in the storms,
On some tall lighthouse dash their little forms,
And the rude granite scatters for their pains
Those small deposits that were meant for brains....

I.


The shadow of the houses leave behind,
In the cool boscage of the grove reclined,
The wine of friendship from love's goblet drink,
And entertain with cheerful speech the mind.

...

Wednesday.

Thro' Manchester Square took a canter just now--
Met the old yellow chariot[1] and made a low bow.
This I did, of course, thinking 'twas loyal and civil,...

'Tis years, soubrette, since last we met,
And yet, ah yet, how swift and tender
My thoughts go back in Time's dull track
To you, sweet pink of female gender!
I shall not say--though others may--...

I saw it all in Fancy's glass--
Herself, the fair, the wild magician,
Who bade this splendid day-dream pass,
And named each gliding apparition.

'Twas like a torch-race--such as they...

PROEM.

Where Kings have been by mob-elections
Raised to the throne, 'tis strange to see
What different and what odd perfections
Men have required in Royalty....

I've had a dream that bodes no good
Unto the Holy Brotherhood.
I may be wrong, but I confess--
As far as it is right or lawful
For one, no conjurer, to guess--
It seems to me extremely awful.
...

PROEM.

Of all that, to the sage's survey,
This world presents of topsy-turvy,
There's naught so much disturbs one's patience,
As little minds in lofty stations....