• BOOKS BRING ME FRIENDS
• WHERE'ER ON EARTH I BE.
• SOLACE OF SOLITUDE-
• BONDS OF SOCIETY!

   

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• Lady, in thy proud eyes
• There is a weary look,
• As if the spirit we know through them
• Were daunted with rebuke
• To think that the heart of man henceforth
• Is read like a read book.

• Lady, in thy lifted face
• The solitude is sore;—
• The true solitude follows the crowd.
• 10 Will it be less or more
• When the words have been spoken to thee
• Which my heart is seeking for?

• Lady, canst thou not guess
• The words which my thoughts seek?
• Perhaps thou deem'st them well to spurn
• And better not to speak.
• Oh! thou must know my love is strong,
• Hearing my voice so weak.

• Lady, ah! go not thus:
• 20 Lady, give ear again:
• Lady, I would show to thee O learn from me that yet
• There may one thing remain
• Which stands not in the knowledge thou hast
• And in thy lore of men.

• Lady, the darkness lasteth long
• Ere the dawn touch the skies;
• Many are the leagues of wilderness
• Till ye come where the green lies;
• Nay often betwixt doubt and doubt
• 30 Death whispers and makes wise.

• Lady, has not my thought
• Dared much? For I would be
• The ending of darkness and the dawn
• Of a new day to thee,
• And thine oăsis, and thy place of rest,
• And thy time of peace, lady.

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