XVI. THE SAME, CONTINUED. THE love of all things springs from love of one; The sky-like spirit of God; a hope begun In doubt and darkness 'neath a fairer sun And to the law of meekness, faith, and ruth, By inward sympathy, shall all be won: This thou shouldst know, who, from the painted feature Of shifting Fashion, couldst thy brethren turn And of a beauty fadeless and eterne; An old man faithless in IIumanity. XVII. THE SAME, CONTINUED. A POET cannot strive for despotism; His harp falls shattered; for it still must be He, who has deepest searched the wide abysm Upward the soul forever turns her eyes; The next hour always shames the hour before; One beauty, at its highest, prophesies That by whose side it shall seem mean and poor; No God-like thing knows aught of less and less, But widens to the boundless Perfectness. XVIII. THE SAME, CONTINUED. THEREFORE think not the Past is wise alone, For Yesterday knows nothing of the Best, Whence glory-winged things to Heaven have flown: While she in glorious madness doth forecast That perfect bud, which seems a flower full-blown To each new Prophet, and yet always opes Fuller and fuller with each day and hour, Heartening the soul with odor of fresh hopes, And longings high, and gushings of wide power, Yet never is or shall be fully blown Save in the forethought of the Eternal One. XIX. THE SAME, CONCLUDED. FAR 'yond this narrow parapet of Time, ΤΟ XX. MARY, since first I knew thee, to this hour, Thy clear heart, fresh as e'er was forest-flower, To prove itself well-placed; we know not whence It gleans the straws that thatch its humble bower: We can but say we found it in the heart, Spring of all sweetest thoughts, arch-foe of blame, Sower of flowers in the dusty mart, Pure vestal of the poet's holy flame, This is enough, and we have done our part If we but keep it spotless as it came. |