But thou and I are one in kind,

As moulded like in nature's mint;
And hill and wood and field did print

The same sweet forms in either mind.

For us the same cold streamlet curl'd

Thro' all his eddying coves; the same
All winds that roam the twilight came

In whispers of the beauteous world.

At one dear knee we proffer'd vows,

One lesson from one book we learn'd, Ere childhood's flaxen ringlet turn'd To black and brown on kindred brows.

And so my wealth resembles thine,
But he was rich where I was poor,
And he supplied my want the more

As his unlikeness fitted mine.

LXXIX.

IF any vague desire should rise,

That holy Death ere Arthur died
Had moved me kindly from his side,

And dropt the dust on tearless eyes;

Then fancy shapes, as fancy can,

The grief my loss in him had wrought, A grief as deep as life or thought, But stay'd in peace with God and man.

I make a picture in the brain ;

I hear the sentence that he speaks;
He bears the burthen of the weeks;

But turns his burthen into gain.

His credit thus shall set me free;
And, influence-rich to soothe and save,
Unused example from the grave
Reach out dead hands to comfort me.

LXXX.

COULD I have said while he was here,

66

My love shall now no further range; There cannot come a mellower change,

For now is love mature in ear."

Love, then, had hope of richer store :

What end is here to my complaint ? This haunting whisper makes me faint, "More years had made me love thee more."

But Death returns an answer sweet:

"My sudden frost was sudden gain, And gave all ripeness to the grain It might have drawn from after-heat."

LXXXI.

I WAGE not any feud with Death

For changes wrought on form and face;
No lower life that earth's embrace

May breed with him can fright my faith.

VOL. II.

E

Eternal process moving on,

From state to state the spirit walks ;
And these are but the shatter'd stalks,

Or ruin'd chrysalis of one.

Nor blame I Death, because he bare
The use of virtue out of earth:
I know transplanted human worth

Will bloom to profit, otherwhere.

For this alone on Death I wreak

The wrath that garners in my heart;

He put our lives so far apart We cannot hear each other speak.

LXXXII.

DIP down upon the northern shore,
O sweet new-year, delaying long;
Thou doest expectant nature wrong;
Delaying long, delay no more.

What stays thee from the clouded noons, Thy sweetness from its proper place? Can trouble live with April days,

Or sadness in the summer moons?

Bring orchis, bring the foxglove spire,
The little speedwell's darling blue,
Deep tulips dash'd with fiery dew,
Laburnums, dropping-wells of fire.

O thou, new-year, delaying long,
Delayest the sorrow in my blood,
That longs to burst a frozen bud,
And flood a fresher throat with song.

LXXXIII.

WHEN I contemplate all alone

The life that had been thine below, And fix my thoughts on all the glow To which thy crescent would have grown;

I see thee sitting crown'd with good,

A central warmth diffusing bliss

In glance and smile, and clasp and kiss,

On all the branches of thy blood;

Thy blood, my friend, and partly mine;
For now the day was drawing on
When thou shouldst link thy life with one

Of mine own house, and boys of thine

Had babbled "Uncle" on my knee;
But that remorseless iron hour
Made cypress of her orange-flower,

Despair of Hope, and earth of thee.

I seem to meet their least desire,

To clap their cheeks, to call them mine.
I see their unborn faces shine

Beside the never-lighted fire.

I see myself an honor'd guest,
Thy partner in the flowery walk
Of letters, genial table-talk,
Or deep dispute, and graceful jest;

While now thy prosperous labor fills

The lips of men with honest praise,
And sun by sun the happy days

Descend below the golden hills

With promise of a morn as fair;

And all the train of bounteous hours
Conduct by paths of growing powers

To reverence and the silver hair;
Till slowly worn her earthly robe,
Her lavish mission richly wrought,
Leaving great legacies of thought,
Thy spirit should fail from off the globe;

What time mine own might also flee,

As link'd with thine in love and fate,
And, hovering o'er the dolorous strait

To the other shore, involved in thee,

Arrive at last the blessed goal,

And He that died in Holy Land
Would reach us out the shining hand,

And take us as a single soul.

What reed was that on which I leant?

Ah, backward fancy, wherefore wake The old bitterness again, and break The low beginnings of content?