"I have gone the whole round of creation: I saw and I spoke;

42

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!

I loved you, Evelyn, all the while!

48

ceived in 'my brain

And pronounced on the rest of his handwork returned him again

ΙΙΟ

His creation's approval or censure: I spoke

Each faculty tasked

To perceive him, has gained an abyss, where a dewdrop was asked.

Have I knowledge? confounded it shrivels at Wisdom laid bare.

Have I forethought? how purblind, how blank, to the Infinite Care!

Do I task any faculty highest, to image success?

I but open my eyes, - and perfection, no more and no less,

(With that stoop of the soul which in bending upraises it too)

The submission of man's nothing-perfect to God's all-complete,

As by each new obeisance in spirit, I climb to his feet.

Yet with all this abounding experience, this deity known,

I shall dare to discover some province, some gift of my own.

There's a faculty pleasant to exercise, hard to hoodwink,

I am fain to keep still in abeyance, (I laugh as I think)

Lest, insisting to claim and parade in it, wot ye, I worst

E'en the Giver in one gift. - Behold, I could love if I durst!

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But I sink the pretension as fearing a man may o'ertake

God's own speed in the one way of love: I abstain for love's sake.

"I believe it! "Tis thou, God, that givest, 'tis I who receive:

In the first is the last, in thy will is my power . to believe.

All's one gift thou canst grant it moreover,

as prompt to my prayer

As I breathe out this breath, as I open these arms to the air.

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From thy will stream the worlds, life and

nature, thy dread Sabaoth:1

I will? the mere atoms despise me! Why am I not loth

To look that, even that in the face too? Why is it I dare

Think but lightly of such impuissance? What stops my despair?

This; 'tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do!

See the King - I would help him but cannot,

the wishes fall through.

Could I wrestle to raise him from sorrow,

Will't please you sit and look at her? I said "Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance, The depth and passion of its earnest glance, But to myself they turned (since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) 10 And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the first

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say, "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:" such
stuff

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had 21
A heart how shall I say?

glad,

too soon made