There's not a maiden in your hall, "Our lady's old and feeble now," They'll say: "she once was fresh and fair, No kindly mate the lady cheers; With threescore and ten years!" Ah! dreary thoughts and dreams are those, While yet the poet's bosom glows, While yet the dame is peerless fair! Sweet lady mine! while yet 'tis time Requite my passion and my truth, And gather in their blushing prime The roses of your youth! William Makepeace Thackeray [1811-1863] "WHEN YOU ARE OLD" WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, Love in a Life And bending down beside the glowing bars YOU'LL love me yet!-and I can tarry I plant a heartfull now: some seed And yield-what you'll not pluck indeed, You'll look at least on love's remains, Your look? that pays a thousand pains. What's death? You'll love me yet! 637 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- 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. ) Range the wide house from the wing to the center, DI Still the same chance! she goes out as I enter. with such suites to explore, LIFE IN A LOVE ESCAPE me? Never Beloved! While I am I, and you are you, So long as the world contains us both, While the one eludes, must the other pursue. It seems too much like a fate, indeed! So the chase takes up one's life, that's all. No sooner the old hope drops to ground Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark, 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: 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, 639 I'll pull you sweet flowers, to wear if you choose them,— I'll sing you sweet songs till the stars rise above me, } We'll look through the trees at the cliff and the eyrie; So come in the evening, or come in the morning; Come when you're looked for, or come without warning: And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you! URANIA She smiles and smiles, and will not sigh, Eagerly once her gracious ken i But light the serious visage grew She looked, and smiled, and saw them through. Our petty souls, cur strutting wits, Yet show her once, ye heavenly Powers, His eyes be like the starry lights; And she to him will reach her hand, And know her friend, and weep for glee, Then will she weep-with smiles, till then 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?" |