Love in a Life

And bending down beside the glowing bars
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
William Butler Yeats [1865-

SONG

From "Pippa Passes "

YOU'LL love me yet!-and I can tarry
Your love's protracted growing:
June reared that bunch of flowers you carry,
From seeds of April's sowing.

I plant a heartfull now: some seed
At least is sure to strike,

And yield-what you'll not pluck indeed,
Not love, but, may be, like.

You'll look at least on love's remains,

A grave's one violet:

Your look?-that pays a thousand pains.

What's death? You'll love me yet!

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Robert Browning (1812-1889]

ROOм after room,

LOVE IN A LIFE

I hunt the house through

We inhabit together.

Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her-
Next time, herself!-not the trouble behind her

Left in the curtain, the couch's perfume!

As she brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew: Yon looking-glass gleamed at the wave of her feather.

Yet the day wears,

And door succeeds door;

I try the fresh fortune

Range the wide house from the wing to the center.

Still the same chance! she goes out as I enter.

Spend my whole day in the quest,-who cares?

But 'tis twilight, you see, with such suites to explore, Such closets to search, such alcoves to importune! Robert Browning [1812-1889]

LIFE IN A LOVE

ESCAPE me?

Never

Beloved!

While I am I, and you are you,

So long as the world contains us both,
Me the loving and you the loth,
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
My life is a fault at last, I fear:

It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.
But what if I fail of my purpose here?
It is but to keep the nerves at strain,

To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And, baffled, get up and begin again,—

So the chase takes up one's life, that's all. While, look but once from your farthest bound At me so deep in the dust and dark,

No sooner the old hope drops to ground

Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark,
I shape me-

Ever

Removed!

Robert Browning [1812-1889]

THE WELCOME

COME in the evening, or come in the morning;

Come when you're looked for, or come without warning:
Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you,

And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you!
Light is my heart since the day we were plighted;
Red is my cheek that they told me was blighted;

Urania

The green of the trees looks far greener than ever,
And the linnets are singing,"True lovers don't sever!"

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I'll pull you sweet flowers, to wear if you choose them,-
Or, after you've kissed them, they'll lie on my bosom;
I'll fetch from the mountain its breeze to inspire you;
I'll fetch from my fancy a tale that won't tire you.
Oh! your step's like the rain to the summer-vexed farmer,
Or saber and shield to a knight without armor;

I'll sing you sweet songs till the stars rise above me,
Then, wandering, I'll wish you in silence to love me.

We'll look through the trees at the cliff and the eyrie;
We'll tread round the rath on the track of the fairy;
We'll look on the stars, and we'll list to the river,

Till you
ask of your darling what gift you can give her:
Oh! she'll whisper you "Love, as unchangeably beaming,
And trust, when in secret, most tunefully streaming;
Till the starlight of heaven above us shall quiver,
As our souls flow in one down eternity's river."

So come in the evening, or come in the morning;
Come when you're looked for, or come without warning:
Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you,

And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you!
Light is my heart since the day we were plighted;
Red is my cheek that they told me was blighted;
The green of the trees looks far greener than ever,
And the linnets are singing, "True lovers don't sever!"
Thomas Osborne Davis [1814-1845]

URANIA

She smiles and smiles, and will not sigh,

While we for hopeless passion die;
Yet she could love, those eyes declare,
Were but men nobler than they are.

Eagerly once her gracious ken
Was turned upon the sons of men;

But light the serious visage grew—

She looked, and smiled, and saw them through.

Our petty souls, cur strutting wits,
Our labored, puny passion-fits-
Ah, may she scorn them still, till we
Scorn them as bitterly as she!

Yet show her once, ye heavenly Powers,
One of some worthier race than ours!
One for whose sake she once might prove
How deeply she who scorns can love.

His eyes be like the starry lights;
His voice like sounds of summer nights;
In all his lovely mien let pierce
The magic of the universe!

And she to him will reach her hand,
And gazing in his eyes will stand,

And know her friend, and weep for glee,
And cry, Long, long I've looked for thee!

Then will she weep-with smiles, till then
Coldly she mocks the sons of men.
Till then her lovely eyes maintain

Their pure, unwavering, deep disdain.

Matthew Arnold [1822-1888]

THREE SHADOWS

I LOOKED and saw your eyes in the shadow of your hair,

As a traveler sees the stream in the shadow of the wood;And I said, "My faint heart sighs, ah me! to linger there, To drink deep and to dream in that sweet solitude."

I looked and saw your heart in the shadow of your eyes,
As a seeker sees the gold in the shadow of the stream;
And I said, "Ah, me! what art should win the immortal
prize,

Whose want must make life cold and Heaven a hollow dream?"

A Match

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I looked and saw your love in the shadow of your heart,
As a diver sees the pearl in the shadow of the sea;
And I murmured, not above my breath, but all apart,-
"Ah! you can love, true girl, and is your love for me?"
Dante Gabriel Rossetti [1828-1882]

SINCE WE PARTED

SINCE we parted yester eve,

I do love thee, love, believe,

Twelve times dearer, twelve hours longer,

One dream deeper, one night stronger,

One sun surer,-thus much more

Than I loved thee, love, before.

Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton [1831-1891]

A MATCH

If love were what the rose is,
And I were like the leaf,
Our lives would grow together
In sad or singing weather,
Blown fields or flowerful closes,

Green pleasure or gray grief;
If love were what the rose is,
And I were like the leaf.

If I were what the words are,

And love were like the tune,
With double sound and single
Delight our lips would mingle,
With kisses glad as birds are

That get sweet rain at noon;
If I were what the words are,
And love were like the tune.

If you were life, my darling,

And I your love were death,
We'd shine and snow together

Ere March made sweet the weather