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Letter II. Sorrow.


I.

Yes, I was mad. I know it. I was mad.
For there is madness in the looks of love;
And he who frights a tender, brooding dove...

Letter I. Prelude.


I.

Teach me to love thee as a man, in prayer,
May love the picture of a sainted nun,
And I will woo thee, when the day is done,...

Letter IV. Yearnings.


I.

The earth is glad, I know, when night is spent,
For then she wakes the birdlings in the bowers;
And, one by one, the rosy-footed hours...

Letter IX. To-Morrow.


I.

O Love! O Love! O Gateway of Delight!
Thou porch of peace, thou pageant of the prime
Of all God's creatures! I am here to climb...

Letter V. Confessions.


I.

O Lady mine! O Lady of my Life!
Mine and not mine, a being of the sky
Turn'd into Woman, and I know not why -
Is't well, bethink thee, to maintain a strife...

Letter VI. Despair.


I.

I am undone. My hopes have beggar'd me,
For I have lov'd where loving was denied.
To-day is dark, and Yesterday has died,...

Letter VII. Hope.


I.

O tears of mine! Ye start I know not why,
Unless, indeed, to prove that I am glad,
Albeit fast wedded to a thought so sad...

Letter VIII. A Vision.


I.

Yes, I will tell thee what, a week ago,
I dreamt of thee, and all the joy therein
Which I conceiv'd, and all the holy din...

Letter X. A Retrospect.


I.

I walk again beside the roaring sea,
And once again I harken to the speech
Of waves exulting on the madden'd beach.
A sound of awful joy it seems to me,...

Letter XI. Faith.


I.

Now will I sing to God a song of praise,
And thank the morning for the light it brings,
Aye! and the earth for every flower that springs,...

Letter XII. Victory.


I.

Now have I reach'd the goal of my desire,
For thou hast sworn - as sweetly as a bell
Makes out its chime - the oath I love to tell,...

XI. Love's Ambition.


I must invoke thee for my spirit's good,
And prove myself un-guilty of the crime
Of mere self-seeking, though with this imbued.
I sing as sings the mavis in a wood,...

Do what I will, I cannot chant so well
As other men; and yet my soul is true.
My hopes are bold; my thoughts are hard to tell,
But thou can'st read them, and accept them, too,...

I.

O thou to whom, athwart the perish'd days
And parted nights long sped, we lift our gaze,
Behold! I greet thee with a modern rhyme,
Love-lit and reverent as befits the time,...

I.

'Tis a legend of a lover,
'Tis a ballad to be sung,
In the gloaming, - under cover, -
By a minstrel who is young;
By a singer who has passion, and who sways us with his tongue.

...

I.

My Love is a lady fair and free,
A lady fair from over the sea,
And she hath eyes that pierce my breast
And rob my spirit of peace and rest.


II.
...

I.

Who comes, to-day, with sunlight on his face,
And eyes of fire, that have a sorrow's trace,
But are not sad with sadness of the years,
Or hints of tears?


II.
...

Lo, as a minstrel at the court of Love,
The nightingale, who knows his mate is nigh,
Thrills into rapture; and the stars above
Look down, affrighted, as they would reply....

IV.

Probation.


Could I, O Love! obtain a charter clear
To be thy bard, in all thy nights and days,
I would consult the stars, from year to year,...

["We have not, alack! an ally to befriend us,
And the season is ripe to extirpate and end us.
Let the German touch hands with the Gaul,
And the fortress of England must fall.
...