A LITTLE THING TO DO, SEES IT AND DOEs it ;-(roberT BROWNING)
MY BUSINESS IS NOT TO REMAKE MYSELF, ROBERT BROWNING)
So the stars wheeled round, and the darkness past,
And at morn we started beside the mast,
And still each ship was sailing fast!
Now, one morn, land appeared a speck
Dim trembling 'twixt sea and sky:
"Avoid it," cried our pilot, "check
The shout, restrain the eager eye!"
But the heaving sea was black behind
For many a night and many a day,
And land, though but a rock, grew nigh;
So we broke the cedar-pales away,
Let the purple awning flap in the wind,
And a statue bright was on every deck!
We shouted, every man of us,
And steered right into the harbour thus,
With pomp and paean glorious.
A hundred shapes of lucid stone!
All day we built its shrine for each,
A shrine of rock for every one,
Nor paused we till the weltering sun.
We sat together on the beach
To sing because our task was done.
When, lo what shouts and merry songs!
What laughter all the distance stirs !
A loaded raft with happy throngs
Of gentle islanders!
"Our isles are just at hand," they cried,
"Like cloudlets faint in even sleeping;
Our temple gates are opened wide,
Our olive-groves thick shade are keeping
For these majestic forms "-- they cried.
BUT MAKE THE ABSOLUTE BEST OF WHAT GOD MADE."-R. BROWNING.
THIS HIGH MAN, WITH A GREAT THING TO PURSUE, DIES ERE HE KNOWS IT."-R. BROWNING.
"WITH GOD A DAY ENDURES ALWAY,-(R. BROWNING)
Oh, then we awoke with a sudden start
From our deep dream, and knew, too late,
How bare the rock, how desolate,
Which had received our precious freight :
Yet we called out-" Depart!
Our gifts once given must here abide.
Our work is done; we have no heart
To mar our work,"-we cried.
[From "Paracelsus," part iv.]
"OH, POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH IN THE TONGUE! AS THE PREACHER SAITH."-R. BROWNING.
KING lived long ago,
In the morning of the world,
When Earth was nigher Heaven than now;
And the king's locks curled
Disparting o'er a forehead full
As the milk-white space 'twixt horn and horn
Of some sacrificial bull-
Only calm as a babe new born:
For he was got to a sleepy mood,
So safe from all decrepitude,
Age with its bane, so sure gone by
(The gods so loved him while he dreamed),
That, having lived thus long, there seemed
No need the king should ever die.
Among the rocks his city was:
Before his palace, in the sun,
He sat to see his people pass,
And judge them every one
From its threshold of smooth stone.
They haled him many a valley thief
Caught in the sheep-pens--robber-chief,
A THOUSAND YEARS ARE BUT A DAY."-R. BROWNING.
"WE PENETRATE OUR LIFE WITH SUCH A GLOW AS FIRE LENDS WOOD AND IRON."-BROWNING.
EACH DEED THOU HAST DONE DIES, ROBERT BROWNING)
Swarthy and shameless-beggar-cheat-
Spy-prowler-or rough pirate found
On the sea-sand left aground;
And sometimes clung about his feet,
With bleeding lip and burning cheek,
A woman, bitterest wrong to speak
Of one, with sullen thick-set brows:
And sometimes from the prison-house
The angry priests a pale wretch brought,
Who through some chink had pushed and pressed,
On knees and elbows, belly and breast,
Worm-like into the temple-caught
At last there by the very god,
Who ever in the darkness strode
Backward and forward, keeping watch
O'er his brazen bowls, such rogues to catch!
And these, all and every one,
The king judged, sitting in the sun.
"OH, IF WE DRAW A CIRCLE PREMATURE, HEEDLESS OF FAR GAIN,-(ROBERT BROWNING)
GREEDY FOR QUICK RETURNS OF PROFIT, SURE BAD IS OUR BARGAIN!"-R. BROWNING.
His councillors, on left and right,
Looked anxious up-but no surprise
Disturbed the king's old smiling eyes,
Where the very blue had turned to white.
'Tis said, a python scared one day
The breathless city, till he came,
With forky tongue and eyes on flame,
Where the old king sat to judge alway;
But when he saw the sweepy hair,
Girt with a crown of berries rare,
Which the god will hardly give to wear
To the maiden who singeth, dancing bare
In the altar-smoke by the pine-torch lights,
At his wondrous forest-rites-
REVIVES, GOES TO WORK IN THE WORLD."-R. BROWNING.
THERE REMAINETH A REST FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD,
Beholding this, he did not dare
Approach that threshold in the sun,
Assault the old king smiling there;
Such grace had kings when the world began.
"ROUND THE CAPE OF A SUDDEN CAME THE SEA, AND THE SUN LOOKED OVER THE MOUNTAIN'S RIM,-(BROWNING)
EAUTIFUL Evelyn Hope is dead!
Sit and watch by her side an hour.
That is her book-shelf, this her bed;
She plucked that geranium-flower,
Beginning to die, too, in the glass;
Little has yet been changed, I think:
The shutters are shut, no light may pass
Save two long rays through the hinge and chink.
Sixteen years old when she died!
Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name;
It was not her time to love; beside,
Her life had many a hope and aim,
Duties enough and little cares,
And now was quiet, now astir,
Till God's hand beckoned unawares-
And the sweet white brow is all of her.
It is too late, then, Evelyn Hope?
What! your soul was pure and true,
The good stars met in your horoscope,
Made you of spirit, fire and dew--
THE USES OF LABOUR ARE SURELY DONE."-BROWNING.
AND STRAIGHT WAS A PATH OF GOLD FOR HIM, AND THE NEED OF A WORLD OF MEN FOR ME."-R. BROWNING.
"MY POET HOLDS THE FUTURE FAST,-R. BROWNING)
And just because I was thrice as old,
And our paths in the world diverged so wide,
Each was nought to each, must I be told?
We were fellow-mortals, nought beside?
No, indeed! for God above
Is great to grant, as mighty to make,
And creates the love to reward the love:
I claim you still, for my own love's sake!
Delayed it may be for more lives yet,
Through worlds I shall traverse not a few:
Much is to learn and much to forget
Ere the time be come for taking you.
"AND THE FRIENDS OF THY BOYHOOD-THAT BOYHOOD OF WONDER AND HOPE,R. BROWNING)
But the time will come-at last it will,
When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say)
In the lower Earth, in the years long still,
That body and soul so pure and gay?
Why, your hair was amber, I shall divine,
And your mouth of your own geranium's red—
And what you would do with me, in fine,
In the new life come in the old one's stead.
I have lived (I shall say) so much since then,
Given up myself so many times,
Gained me the gains of various men,
Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;
Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,
Either I missed, or itself missed me:
And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope:
What is the issue? let us see.
ACCEPTS THE COMING AGES' DUTY."-R. BROWNING.
PRESENT PROMISE, AND WEALTH OF THE FUTURE, BEYOND THE EYE'S SCOPE."-ROBERT BROWNING.
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