• Her portrait looks [?] unnatural /seems a miracle
  Added TextThis is her portrait as she was:
• As strange a It seems a thing useless[?] to wonder on,
• Than if As though mine image in the glass
• Should tarry when myself am gone.
• While her mere semblance (I would say)
• Has for its home from, May to May,
• This pleasant place made Her very bower still sweet for me
• Wherein I see and hear With many thoughts of her, is she
• In the dark always, deaf with clay?

• 10 She stands there painted among trees 'Twas well to paint her dear lost The Her portrait shrines her sweet still face
• Between whose growth of mystic [?] Through whose thick tops the light falls in Now among trees where Mid
  Added TextIn mystic leaves where light falls in
• Hardly at all; a covert place
• Where you might think to find a din
• Of doubtful talk, and a live flame
• Wandering, and many a shape whose name
• Not itself knoweth, and old dew,
• And silent faces breathless marvels meeting you,
• And all things going as they came.

• It is herself. Even so she stood.
  Added Text That Such was the place; and there she stands
• 20 That within that grove As in that grove that place that day . At last
• Such Thus was the movement of her hands was so
• And so thus the carriage of her waist.
• And passing fair the type must seem,
• Unknown the presence & the dream.
• 'Tis she: though of herself, alas!
• Less than her shadow on the grass
• Or than her image in the stream.

• 'Twas there we wandered, all that day
  Added TextThat day we passed there, I and she
• One with the other all alone;
• 30 And we were blithe; yet memory
• Saddens those hours, as when the moon
• Looks upon daylight. And with her
• I stooped to drink the spring-water,
• Athirst where other waters sprang:
• And where the echo is, she sang,—
• My soul another echo there.

• All yesternight That face/Her soul was with me yestereve Last night at last I would could have slept,
• And I yet delayed my sleep till dawn,
• Still wandering. Then at last it was I wept:
• 40 For unawares I came upon
• That shade wood where then she would walk walked with me:
• And as I stood there suddenly,
• All wan with traversing the night,
• Upon the desolate verge of light
• Yearned loud the iron-bosomed sea.

• Even so, where Heaven most deep appears holds breath & hears
• Ah! there where in the inner Heaven The ecstasy broods holiest
  Added Text And the/ And The beating heart in its own breast,
• And Where round the secret of the light all spheres
• All angels lay their wings to rest,
• 50 How stood her spirit/sweet soul new life hushed and awed,
• When, having borne its song joy abroad
• Throughout the music of the suns,
• It comes into some place at once
• And knew the silence there for God!

• Here with her portrait oft/will I let me sit
• Past noon into the day's decline,
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• Till all grows awful through the room Till other eyes more awful shall look from it,
• As it includes a/ [?] Eyes of the spirit's Palestine,—
• Calmer, more silent/awful, holier
  Added TextEven in Love's [?] sweetness tenderer
• 60 Then shall the hopes and [?] long lost with her
• Stand round her image side by side,
• Like tombs of pilgrims that have died
• About the Holy Sepulchre.

   

• This is her portrait as she was:
• It seems a thing to wonder on,
• As though mine image in the glass
• Should tarry when myself am gone.
• I gaze until she seems to stir,—
• Until mine eyes almost aver
• That now, even now, the sweet lips part
• To breathe the words of the sweet heart:—
• And yet the earth is over her.

• 10 Her picture has enshrined In painting this her, I shrined her face
• 'Mid mystic trees, where light falls in
• Hardly at all; a covert place
• Where you might think to find a din
• Of doubtful talk, and a live flame
• Wandering, and many a shape whose name
• Not itself knoweth, and old dew,
• And your own footsteps meeting you,
• And all things going as they came.

• A sweet deep dim place wood; and there she stands
• 20 As in that place wood that day. At least,
• Thus was the movement of her hands
• And thus the carriage of her waist.
• And passing fair the type must seem,
• Unknown the presence and the dream.
• 'Tis she: though of herself, alas!
• Less than her shadow on the grass
• Or than her image in the stream.

• That day we met there, I and she
• One with the other all alone;
• 30 And we were blithe; yet memory
• Saddens those hours, as when the moon
• Looks upon daylight. And with her
• I stooped to drink the spring-water,
• Athirst where other waters sprang:
• And where the echo is, she sang,—
• My soul another echo there.

• Last night at last I could have slept,
• And yet delayed my sleep till dawn
• Still wandering. Then it was I wept:
• 40 For unawares I came upon
• Those glades where then she walked with me:
• And as I stood there suddenly,
• All wan with traversing the night,
• Upon the desolate verge of light
• Yearned loud the iron-bosomed sea.

• Even so, where Heaven holds breath & hears
• The beating heart of Love's own breast,
• Where round the Secret of all spheres
• All angels lay their wings to rest,
• 50 How shall my soul stand rapt and awed,
• When, by the new birth borne abroad
• Throughout the music of the suns,
• It enters in her soul 's love at once
• And knows the radiance/presence silence there for God!

• Here with her face doth memory sit
• Meanwhile, and wait the day's decline,
• Till other eyes shall look from it,
• Eyes of the spirit's Palestine,
• Even than the old gaze tenderer:
• 60 While hopes and aims long lost with her
• Stand round her image side by side,
• Like tombs of pilgrims that have died
• About the Holy Sepulchre.

   

• Consider the sea's listless chime:
• Time's self it is, made audible,—
• The murmur of the earth's own shell.
• Secret continuance sublime
• Is the sea's end: our sight may pass
• No furlong further. Since time was,
• This sound hath told the lapse of time.

• No quiet, which is death's,—it hath
• The mournfulness of ancient life,
• 10 Enduring always at dull strife.
• As the world's heart of rest and wrath,
• Its painful pulse is in the sands.
• Last utterly, the whole sky stands,
• Grey and not known, along its path.

• Listen alone beside the sea,
• Listen alone among the woods;
• Those voices of twin solitudes
• Shall have one sound alike to thee:
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Manuscript Addition: 46/9
Editorial Description: Two numbers written in upper right corner, the “46” possibly autograph
• Listen Hark where the murmurs of thronged men
• 20 Surge and sink back and surge again,—
• Still the one voice of wave and tree.

• Gather a shell from the strown beach
• And listen at its lips: they sigh
• The same desire and mystery,
• The echo of the whole sea's speech.
• And all mankind is thus at heart
• Not anything but what thou art:
• And Earth, Sea, Man, are all in each.

   

• Master of the murmuring courts
• Where the shapes of sleep convene,—
• When among thy dim resorts
• This my soul in dreams hath been,
• What of her whom it hath seen?
• No reports
• From thy those jealous courts I glean.

• There the dreams are multitudes:
• Some whose bouyance waits not sleep,
• 10Deep within the August woods;
• Some that hum while rest may steep
• Weary labour laid a-heap;
• Interludes,
• Some, of grievous moods that weep.

• Youth's warm fancies all are there: Those Thence are youth's warm fancies: there
• Women fill thrill with whisperings
• Valleys full of plaintive air;
• There breathe s perfume s; there in rings
• Whirl the foam-bewildered springs;
• 20 Syren there
• Winds her dizzy hair and sings.

• Thence the one dream mutually
• Dream'd in bridal unison,
• Less than waking ecstasy;
• Half-formed visions that make moan
• In the house of birth alone;
• And what we
• At death's wicket see, unknown —

• Reft of her, m But for mine own sleep, it lies
• 30 In one gracious form's control,
• Fair with honorable eyes,
• Lamps of an implicit auspicious soul:
• O their glance is bounteous dole,
• Sweet and wise,
• Wherein Love descries his goal.

• Reft of her, my dreams are all
• Clammy trance that fears the sky:
• Changing footpaths shift and fall;
• From polluted coverts nigh,
• 40 Miserable phantoms sigh;
• Quakes the pall,
• And the funeral goes by.

• As, since man waxed deathly wise,
• Secret somewhere on this earth
• Unpermitted Eden lies,—
• So within the world's wide girth
• Hides she from my spirit's dearth,—
• Paradise
• Of a love that cries for birth.

• 50Master, it is soothly said
• That, as echoes of man's speech
• Far in secret clefts are made,—
• So do all men's bodies reach
• Shadows o'er thy sunken beach,—
• Shape or shade
• In those halls pourtrayed of each?

• Ah! might I, by thy good grace
• Groping in the windy stair,
• (Darkness and the breath of space
• 60 Like loud waters everywhere,)
• Meeting mine own image there
• Face to face,
• Send it from that place to her!

• Nay, not I; but oh! do thou,
• Master, from thy shadowkind
• Call my body's phantom now:
• Bid it bear its face declin'd
• Till its flight her slumbers find,
• And her brow
• 70 Feel its presence bow like wind.

• Where in groves the gracile Spring
• Trembles, with mute orison
• Confidently strengthening,
• Water's voice and wind's as one
• Shed an echo in the sun,
• Soft as Spring,
• Master, bid it Let mine image Master, bid it sing and moan.

• Song shall tell how glad and strong
• Is the night she soothes alway;
• 80Moan shall grieve with that parched tongue
• Of the brazen hours of day:
• Sounds as of the springtide they,
• Moan and song,
• While the chill months long for May.

• Not the prayers which with all leave
• The world's fluent woes prefer,—
• Not the praise the world doth give,
• Dulcet fulsome whisperer;—
• Let it yield man's love to her,
• 90 And achieve
• Strength that shall not grieve or err.

• Wheresoe'er my sleep befall may fall,
• Both at night- time watch, (let it say,)
• And where round the sundial
• The reluctant hours of day,
• Heartless, hopeless of their way,
• Rest and call,—
• Craving conduct, There her glance doth fall all astray,—

• Suddenly her face is there.
• 100 So do mounting vapours wreathe
• Subtle-scented transports where
• The black [hill?] firwood sets its teeth.
• Part the boughs and look beneath,—
• Lilies share
• Secret waters there, and breathe.

• Master, bid my shadow bend
• Whispering thus till birth of light,
• Lest new shapes that sleep may send
• Scatter all its work to flight;—
• 110 Master, master of the night,
• Bid it spend
• Speech, song, prayer, and end aright.

• Yet, ah me! if at her head
• There another phantom lean
• Murmuring o'er the fragrant bed,
• And Ah! and if my spirit's sleeping queen
• Smile those others' speech those alien words between,—
• Ah! poor shade!
• Shall it strive, or fade unseen?

• 120Like a vapour wan and mute,
• Like a flame, so let it pass;
• One low sigh across her lute,
• One dull breath against her glass;
• And to my sad soul, alas!
• One salute
• Cold as when death's foot shall pass.

• But from old time, life, not death,
• Master, in thy rule is rife:
• Lo! through thee, with mingling breath,
• 130 Adam woke beside his wife.
• O Love bring me so, for strife,
• Force and faith,
• Bring me so not death but life!

• Yea, to Love himself is pour'd
• This frail song of hope and fear.
• Thou art Love, of one accord
• With kind Sleep to bring her here,
• Still-eyed, deep-eyed, ah how dear!
• Master, Lord,
• 140 In her name implor'd, O hear!

   

• As when desire, long darkling, dawns, and first
• The mother looks upon the newborn child,
• Even so my Lady stood at gaze and smiled
• When her soul knew at length the Love it nursed.
• Born with her life, creature of poignant thirst
• And exquisite hunger, at her heart Love lay
• Quickening in darkness, till a voice that day
• Cried on him, and the bonds of birth were burst.

• Now, shielded in his wings, our faces yearn
• 10 Together, as his fullgrown feet now range
• Above us The grove, and his kind warm hands our couch prepare:
• Till our united clinging to his song our bodiless souls in turn
• Be born his children, as/when the shadowy when Death's bridal nuptial change
• Leaves us for last light the halo of his hair.
Deleted Text
Until to his last song our souls in turn
Be born his bodiless children when the change &c.

   

• I did not look upon her eyes,
• (Though scarcely seen, with no surprise,
• 'Mid many eyes a single look,)
• Because they should not gaze rebuke,
• To-night Thenceforth, from stars in sky and brook.

• I did not take her by the hand,
• (Though little was to understand
• From touch of hand all friends might take,)
• Because it should not prove a flake
• 10Burnt in my palm to boil and ache.

• I did not listen to her voice,
• (Though none had noted, where at choice
• All might rejoice in listening,)
• Because no such a thing should cling
• In the sea-wind at evening.

   

• Helen knelt at Venus' shrine,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Saying, “A little gift is mine,
• A little gift for a heart's desire.
• Hear me speak and give make me a sign!
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “Look, I bring thee a carven cup;
• ( O Troy Town!)
• 10See it here as I hold it up,—
• Shaped it is to the heart's desire,
• Fit to fill when the gods would sup.
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “It was moulded like my breast;
• ( O Troy Town!)
• He that sees it may not rest,
• Rest at all for the his heart's desire,
• O give ear to my heart's request behest!
• 20 ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “See my breast, how like it is;
• ( O Troy Town!)
• See it bare for the air to kiss!
• Is the cup to thy heart's desire?
• O the breast let Love make his!
  Added TextO for the breast, O make it his!
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “ Lo! each Each twin breast is an apple sweet!
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Once an apple stirred the beat
• Of thy heart with the heart's desire:—
• 40Say, who brought it then to thy feet?
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “They that claimed it then were three:
• ( O Troy Town!)
• For thy sake two hearts did he
• Make forlorn of the heart's desire.
• Do for him as he did for thee!
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• 50“Mine are apples grown to the south,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Grown to taste in the days of drouth,
• Taste and waste to the heart's desire:
• Mine are apples meet for his mouth!”
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Venus looked on Helen's gift,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Looked and smiled with subtle drift,
• 60 Knew Saw the work of her heart's desire:—
• “There thou kneel'st for Love to lift!”
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Venus looked in Helen's face,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Knew far off an hour and place, —
• Fire/Fire And fire lit from the heart's desire;
• Laughed and said, “Thy gift hath grace!”
• ( O Troy's down,
• 70 Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Cupid looked on Helen's breast,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Saw the aching heart/[?] in aching heart its guest
• Saw the flame of the heart's desire;
• There his arrow stood confess'd.
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Cupid took another dart,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• 80Fledged it for another heart,
• Winged the shaft with the heart's desire,
• Drew the string and said, “Depart!”
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Paris turned upon his bed,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Turned upon his bed and said,
• Dead at heart with the heart's desire,—
• “O to clasp her golden head!”
• 90 ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

   

• The wind flapped loose, the wind was still,
• Shaken out dead from tree and hill:
• I had [?] walked walked on at the wind's will,—
• I sat now, for the wind was still.

• Between my knees my forehead was,—
• My lips, drawn in, said not a Alas!
• My hair was over in the grass,
• My naked ears heard the day pass.

• Mine eyes, wide open, had the run
• 10 Of some ten weeds to fix upon;
• Among the which, out of the sun,
• The woodspurge bloomed, three cups in one.

• From sharpest grief there need not be
• Knowledge or even memory:
• One thing then learnt remains to me,—
• The woodspurge has a cup of three.

   

• These little firs today are things
• To clasp into a giant's cap,
• Or fans to suit his lady's lap.
• From many winters many springs
• Shall cherish them in strength & sap,
• Till they be marked upon the map,
• A wood for the wind's wanderings.

• All seed is in the sower's hands:
• And what at first was trained to spread
• 10 Its shelter for some single head,—
• Yea, even such fellowship of wands,—
• May hide the sunset, and the shade
• Of its great multitude be laid
• Upon the earth and elder sands.

   

• Peace in her chamber, wheresoe'er
• It be, a holy place:
• The thought still brings my soul such grace
• As morning meadows wear.

• Whether it still be small and light,
• A maid's who dreams alone,
• As from her orchard-gate the moon
• Its ceiling showed at night:

• Or whether, in a shadow dense
• 10 As nuptial hymns invoke,
• Innocent maidenhood awoke
• To married innocence:

• There still the thanks unheard await
• The unconscious gift bequeathed,
• And there my soul this hour has breathed
• An air inviolate.

   

• So it is, my dear.
• All such things touch secret strings
• For heavy hearts to hear.
• So it is, my dear.

• Very like indeed:
• Sea and sky, afar, on high,
• Sand and strewn seaweed,—
• Very like indeed.

• But the sea stands spread
• 10As one wall with the flat skies,
• Where the lean black craft like flies
• Seem well-nigh stagnated,
• Soon to drop off dead.

• Seemed it so to us
• When I was thine and thou wast mine,
• And all these things were thus,
• But all our world in us?

• Could we be so now?
• Not if all beneath heaven's pall
• 20 Lay dead but I and thou,
• Could we be so now!

---

   

• O leave thine hand where it lies cool
• Upon the eyes whose lids are hot:
• Its rosy shade is bountiful
• Of silence, and assuages thought.
• O lay thy lips against thine hand
• And let me feel thy breath through it,
• While through the sense thy song shall fit
• The soul to understand.

• The music lives upon my brain
• 10 Between thine hands within mine eyes;
• It stirs thy lifted throat like pain,
• An aching pulse of melodies.
• Lean nearer, let the music pause:
• The soul may better understand
• Thy music, shadowed in thine hand,
• Now while the song withdraws.

---

   

• “How should I your true love know
• From another one?”
• “By his cockle-hat and staff
• And his sandal-shoon.”

• “And what signs have told you now
• That he hastens home?”
• “Lo! the Spring is nearly gone,
• He is nearly come.”

• “For a token is there nought,
• 10 Say, that he should bring?”
• “He will bear a ring I gave
• And another ring.”

• “How may I, when he shall ask,
• Tell him who lies there?”
• “Nay, but leave my face unveiled
• And unbound my hair.”

• “Can you say to me some word
• I shall say to him?”
• “Say I'm looking in his eyes
• 20 Though my eyes are dim.”

   

• Lay your head here, Mary,
• Lay your head here,
• While the warm grass, Mary,
• With timid voice and wary,
• Sings in your ear:—

• The grass which round us, Mary,
• Shuts like a nest;
• By your dear limbs, dear Mary,
• Lighter than limbs of Faëry,
• 10 Daintily press'd.

• Back with it all though, Mary,
• Back and aside;
• For t The wind comes this way, Mary,
• And the tossed here the trees are airy
• And the skies are wide.

• Your cheek is pale now, Mary,
• And red, by turns.
• Why should the hand be chary
• Of that to give which, Mary,
• 30 The heart so yearns?

• What fear is in your eyes do your eyes fear, Mary,
• Tender So grave and soft?
• I love to see them, Mary,
• In whimsical vagary
• 20 Lifted aloft.

• Alas Mary, Mary, Mary,
• Laugh in my face:
• You know now, my own Mary
• No eyes can laugh so rarely
• In any place Or grant such grace.

• Give me your hand, ah! Mary.
• Give me your hand:
• In city or in prairie
• There is none kinder whiter, Mary,
• From land to land.

• Your lips to my lips, Mary,
• Your lips to mine:
• High up in Hebe's dairy
• No milk so sweet, my Mary,
• 40 On earth no wine.

• Lay your head here, Mary,
• Lay your head here;
• While my heart now, Mary,
• The pleasant tune to vary,
• Beats in your ear.

       

• A little while a little love
• The hour yet bears for thee & me
• Who yet have not drawn no the veil to see
• If still our heaven be lit above.
• Thou merely, as at the chill day's last sigh,
• Hast felt thy soul prolong their moan the tone;
• And I have heard the night-wind cry
• And deemed its speech mine own.

• A little while a little love
• 10 The scattering autumn hoards for us
• Whose bower is not yet ruinous
• Nor quite unleaved our songless grove.
• Only across the shaken boughs
• We hear the flood-tides seek the sea,
• And deep in both our hearts they rouse
• One wail for thee and me.

• A little while a little love
• May yet be ours who have not said
• The word it makes our eyes afraid
• 20To know that each is thinking of.
• Not yet the end: be our lips dumb
• In smiles a little season yet:
• I'll tell thee, when the end is come,
• How we may best forget.

   

• Between the brows, between the lips,
• Between the hands of Love-Lily,
• A spirit is born who ever clips
• My blood with fire and calls to me;
• Who breathes upon my gazing eyes,
• Who laughs and murmurs in mine ear,
• At whose least touch my colour flies,
• And whom my life grows faint to hear.

• Within the voice, within the heart,
• 10 Within the soul of Love-Lily,
• A spirit is born who lifts apart
• His tremulous wings and looks at me;
• Who on my mouth his finger lays,
• And shows, while whispering lutes confer,
• That Eden of Love's watered ways
• Whose winds & spirits worship her.

• Brows, hands, & lips, heart, soul, & voice,
• Kisses and words of Love-Lily,—
• Oh! bid me with your joy rejoice
• 20 Till riotous longing rest in me!
• Ah! let not life be still distraught,
• But find in her its gracious goal,
• Whose speech Truth knows not from her thought
• Nor Love her body from her soul.

   

• Along the grass sweet airs are blown
• Our way this day in Spring.
• Of all the songs that we have known
• Now which one shall we sing?
• Not that, my love, no, no,—
• Not this, my love? so, so,—
• Yet both were ours, but hours will come & go.

• The grove is all a light green mist,
• The year has seen the sun The new year sucks the sun
  Added TextThe new year sucks the sun.
• 10Of all the kisses that we kiss'd,
• Now which shall be the one?
• Not that, my love, no, no,—
• Not this, my love, heigh ho,—
• For all the sweets that all the winds can blow.

• The boughs are dark above our eyes,
• The skies are in a net:
• And what's the thing beneath the skies
• We two would most forget?
• Not birth, my love, no, no,—
• 20 Not death, my love, no, no,—
• Oh The love once ours, but ours so long hours ago.

   

---

   

• Along the grass sweet airs are blown
• Our way this day in Spring.
• Of all the songs that we have known
• Now which one shall we sing?
• Not that, my love, no, no, ah! no,—
• Not this, my love? so, so, why, so,—
• Yet both were ours, but hours will come & go.

• The grove is all a light/bright green pale, frail mist
• The new year sucks the sun!
• 10Of all the kisses that we kissed
• Now which shall be the one?
• Not that, my love, no, no, ah! no,—
• Not this, my love, heigh ho,—
• For all the sweets that all the winds can blow.

• The boughs are dark branches cross above our eyes,
• The skies are in a net:
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Manuscript Addition: 25/33/35
Editorial Description: Numeration, with the number “25” possibly by DGR.
• And what's the thing beneath the skies
• We two would most forget?
• Not birth, my love, no, no,—
• 20 Not death, my love, no, no,—
• The love once ours, but ours long hours ago.

   

• In a soft-complexioned sky,
• Fleeting rose and kindling grey,
• Have you seen Aurora fly
• At the break of day?
• So my maiden, so my modest may
• Blushing cheek and gleaming eye
• Lifts to look my way.

• Where the inmost leaf is stirred
• With the heart-beat of the grove,
• 10 Have you heard a hidden bird
• Cast her note above?
• So my lady, so my lovely love,
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Actual Size: 21.8 x 17.6
Paper Lineation: lined
Paper Stock: laid white
Actual Watermark: B & H / SUPER FINE / KENT [with heraldic device]
Manuscript Addition: 26/34/37
Editorial Description: Numeration, with the number “26” possibly by DGR.
• Echoing Cupid's prompted word,
• Makes a tune thereof.

• Have you seen, at heaven's mid-height,
• In the moon-wrack's ebb and tide,
• Venus leap forth burning white,
• Luna pale and hide?
• So my bright breast-jewel, so my bride,
• 20 One sweet night, when fear takes flight,
• Shall leap against my side.

   

• Say, is it day, is it dusk in thy bower,
• Thou whom I long for, who longest for me?
• Oh! be it light, be it night, 'tis Love's hour,
• Love's that is fettered as Love's that is free.
• Free Love has leaped to that innermost chamber,
• Oh! the last time, and the hundred before:
• Fettered Love, motionless, can but remember,
• Yet something that sighs from him passes the door.

• What were my prize, could I enter thy bower,
• 10 This day, tomorrow, at eve or at morn?
• Large lovely arms and a neck like a tower,
• Bosom then heaving that now lies forlorn.
• Deep in warm pillows, (the sun's bed is colder!)
• Thy sweetness all near me, so distant today;
• My hand round thy head neck & my thy hand on thy my shoulder,
• My mouth on to thy neck mouth as the world melts away.

• What is it keeps me afar from thy bower,—
• My spirit, my body, so fain to be there?
• Waters engulfing or fires that devour?—
• 20 Earth heaped against me or death in the air?
• Nay, but in day-dreams, for terror, for pity,
• The trees wave their heads with an omen to tell;
• Nay, but in night-dreams, throughout the dark city,
• The hours, clashed together, lose count in the bell.

• Shall I not one day remember thy bower,
• One day when all days are one day to me?—
• Thinking, “I stirred not, & yet had the power,”—
page: [36v]  
Note: blank page
page: [37r]  
Actual Size: 21.8 x 17.6
Paper Lineation: lined
Paper Stock: laid white
Actual Watermark: B & H / SUPER FINE / KENT [with heraldic device]
Manuscript Addition: 28/36/39
Editorial Description: Numeration, with the number “28” possibly by DGR.
• Yearning, “Ah God, if again it might be!”
• Peace, peace! such a small lamp illumes, on this highway,
• 30 So dimly so few steps in front of my feet,—
• Yet shows me that her way is parted from my way!
• Out of sight, beyond light, at what point shall we meet?

---

    Marzo/68    

---

• “And if you have seethed your wax aright,
• Sister Helen,
• You'll let me play, for you said I might.”
• “Be very still in your play to-night,
• Little brother.”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• O what is this Dark night, to-night, between Hell & Heaven? )

• “You said it must melt ere vesper-bell,
• Sister Helen;
• 10 If now it be molten, all is well.”
• “Even so,—nay, peace! you cannot tell,
• Little brother.”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• What should be told O what is this, between Hell & Heaven? )

• “Oh the waxen knave was plump today,
• Sister Helen;
• How like dead folk he has dropped away!”
• “Nay now, of the dead what can you say,
• Little brother?”
• 20 ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• What of the dead, between Hell & Heaven?)

• “See, see, against the burning wood,
• Sister Helen,
• The thin wax shines as red as blood!”
• “Nay now, when looked you yet on blood,
• Little brother?”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• How pale she is, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “Now close your eyes, for they're sick & sore,
• 30 Sister Helen,
• And I'll play without the gallery door.”
• “Aye, let me rest,—I'll lie on the floor,
• Little brother,”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• What rest tonight, between Hell & Heaven?)

• “Here high up in the gallery balcony,
• Sister Helen,
• The moon flies face to face with me.”
• “Aye, look and say whatever you see,
• 40 Little brother.”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• What sight tonight between Hell & Heaven?)

• “Outside it's merry in the wind's wake,
• Sister Helen;
• In the shaken trees the chill stars shake.’
• “Hush, heard you a horse-tread as you spake,
• Little brother?”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• What sound tonight between Hell and Heaven?)

• 50“I'll stay outside on the terrace here,
• Sister H.
• So we can talk and none can hear.
• Say all you see & all you hear
• Little B.
• (O M. M. M.
• What sight, what sound &c.

• “I hear a horse-tread, and I see,
• Sister Helen,
• Three horsemen that ride terribly.”
• 60“Little brother, whence come the three,
• Little brother?”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Whence should they come, between Hell & Heaven?)

• “They come by the hill-verge from Boyne Bar,
• Sister Helen,
• And one draws nigh, but two are afar.”
• “Look, look, do you know them who they are,
• Little brother?”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• 70 Who should they be, between Hell & Heaven?)

• “Oh, it's Kieth of Eastholm Holm of East Holm rides so fast,
• Sister Helen,
• For I know the white mane on the blast.”
• “The hour has come, has come at last,
• Little brother!”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Her hour at last, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “He has made a sign and called Halloo!
• Sister Helen,
• 80 And he says that he would speak with you.”
• ‘Oh tell him I fear the frozen dew,
• Little brother.”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Thou heard'st her laugh Why laughs she thus, between Hell & Heaven? )

• “The wind is loud, but I hear him cry,
• Sister Helen,
• That Kieth Holm of Ewern's like to die.”
• “And he and thou, and thou and I,
• Little brother.”
• 90 ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• And they and we, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “Since yesterday he lies sick abed,
• Sister Helen,
• And he prays in torment to be dead.”
• “The thing may chance, if he have prayed,
• Little brother!”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• If he have prayed, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “He says, till you take back your ban,
• Sister Helen,
• His soul would pass, but never can.”
• “Nay then, shall I slay a living man,
• 110 Little brother?’
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• A living soul, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “Here's Kieth of Westholm Holm of West Holm riding fast,
• Sister Helen,
• For I know the white plume on the blast.”
• “The hour, the sweet hour I forecast,
• Little brother!”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Is the hour sweet, between Hell & Heaven?)

• 120“He stops to speak, and he stills his steed horse,
• Sister Helen;
• Through the murmuring trees the [?] is dead
  Added TextBut his words are drowned in the wind's course.”
• “Nay hear, nay hear, you must hear indeed perforce,
• Little brother!”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• A word ill heard, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “Oh he says that Kieth Holm of Ewern's cry,
• Sister Helen,
• Is ever to see you ere he die.”
• 130“He sees me in earth, in moon & sky,
• Little brother!’
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Earth, moon & sky, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “He sends a ring & a broken coin,
• Sister Helen,
• And bids you mind the banks of Boyne.”
• “What else he broke will he ever join,
• Little brother?”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• 140 No, never joined more, between Hell & Heaven! )

• “He yields you these & craves full fain,
• Sister Helen,
• You pardon him in his mortal pain.”
• “What else he took will he give again,
• Little brother?’
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Not twice to give, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “Oh it's Kieth of Kieth Holm of Holm now that rides fast,
• Sister Helen,
• For I know the white hair on the blast.”
• “The short short hour will soon be past,
• Little brother!”
• 160 ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Will soon be past, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “He looks at me and he tries to speak,
• Sister Helen,
• But oh! his voice is sad and weak!”
• “What here should the mighty Baron seek,
• Little brother!”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Oh vainly sought, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “Oh he prays you, as his heart would rive,
• Sister Helen,
• To save his dear son's soul alive.”
• “Nay, flame cannot slay it, it shall thrive,
• 180 Little brother!”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Alas, alas, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “He cries to you, kneeling in the road,
• Sister Helen,
• To go with him for the love of God!”
• “The way is long to his son's abode,
• Little brother.”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• The way is long, between Hell & Heaven!)

• 190“O Sister Helen, you heard the bell,
• Sister Helen!
• More loud than the vesper-chime it fell.”
• “No vesper-chime, but a dying knell,
• Little brother?”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• His dying knell, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “Alas! but I fear the heavy sound,
• Sister Helen;
• Is it in the sky or in the ground?”
• 200“Say, have they turned their horses round,
• Little brother?”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• What would she more, between Hell & Heaven?)

• “They have raised the old man from his knee,
• Sister Helen,
• And they ride in silence hastily.”
• “More fast the naked soul doth flee,
• Little brother!”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• 210 The naked soul, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “Oh the wind is sad in the iron chill,
• Sister Helen,
• And weary sad they look by the hill.”
• “But he they mourn is sadder still,
• Little brother!”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Most sad of all, between Hell and Heaven!)

• “See, see, the wax has dropped from its place,
• Sister Helen,
• 220 And the flames are winning up apace!”
• “Yet here they burn but for a space,
• Little brother?”
• ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Swift space and place, between Hell & Heaven!)

• “Ah! what white thing at the door has crossed,
• Sister Helen?
• Ah! what is this that sighs in the frost?”
• “A soul that's lost as mine is lost,
• Little brother!”
• 230 ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
• Lost, lost, all lost, between Hell & Heaven!)

---

   

• She fluted with her mouth as when one sips,
• And waved her golden head, brave head and kind,
• Outside his cage, close to the window-blind;
• Till her sweet fond bird, with little turns and dips,
• Piped low to her of sweet companionships.
• And when he stopped, she took some seed, I vow,
• And fed him from her rosy tongue, which now
• Peeped like as a piercing bud between her lips.

• And like a child in Chaucer, on whose tongue
• 10 The Blessed Mary laid, when he was dead,
• A grain,—who straightway praised her name in song:
• Even so, when she, a little lightly red,
• Now turned on me and laughed, I felt made strong,
• To honour and to praise her golden head.

   

---

• Weary already, weary miles to-night
• I walked for bed: and so, to get some ease,
• I dogged the flying moon with similes.
• And like a wisp she doubled on my sight
• In ponds; and caught in tree-tops like a kite;
• And in a globe of film all vapourish
• Swam full-faced like a silly silver fish;—
• Last like a bubble shot the welkin's height
• Where my road turned, & got behind me, & sent
• 10 My wizened shadow craning over round at me,
• And jeered, “So, step the measure,—one two three!”—
• And if I faced on her, looked innocent.
• But just at parting, halfway down a dell,
• She kissed me for good-night. So you'll not tell.

   

---

• I plucked a honeysuckle where
• The hedge on high is quick with thorn,
• And climbing for my the prize, was torn,
• And fouled my feet in quag-water;
• And by the thorns and by the wind
• The blossom that I took was thinn'd,
• And yet I found it sweet and fair.

• Thence to a richer growth I came,
• Where, nursed in mellow intercourse,
• 10 The honeysuckles sprang by scores,
• Not harried like my single stem,
• All virgin lamps of scent & dew.
• So from my hand that first I threw,
• Yet plucked not any more of them.

   

• John of Howth is back with peace,
• But he comes home ill at ease.

• “Good-morrow, mother.” “Good-morrow, son;
• Your wife has borne you a little one.”

• “Go now, mother, go before,
• Make me a bed upon the floor;

• “Very low your foot must fall,
• That my wife hear not at all.”

• At the hour of As it neared the midnight 's toll,
• 10John of Howth gave up his soul.

• “Tell me now, my mother, my dear,
• What's the singing that I hear?”

• “Daughter, it's the troops in rows
• Going round about our house.”

• “Tell me though, my mother, my dear,
• What's the knocking that I hear?”

• “Daughter, it's the carpenter
• Mending planks upon the stair.”

• “Well, but tell, my mother, my dear,
• 20What's the crying that I hear?”

• “Daughter, the children are awake,
• Crying with their teeth that ache.”

• “Nay, but say, my mother my dear,
• Why do you stand weeping here?”

• “Oh! the truth must be said,—
• It's that John of Howth is dead.”

• “Mother, let the sexton know
• That the grave must be for two;

• “Aye, and still have room to spare,
• 30For you must lay the baby there.”

---

   

• Inside my father's close,
• Fly away O my heart away!
• Sweet apple-blossom blows
• So sweet.

• Three kings' daughters fair,
• Fly away O my heart away!
• They lie below it there
• So sweet.

• “Ah!” says the eldest one,
• 10 Fly away O my heart away!
• “I think the day's begun
• So sweet.”

• “Ah!” says the second one,
• Fly away O my heart away!
• “Far off I hear the drum
• So sweet.”

• “Ah!” says the youngest one,—
• Fly away O my heart away!
• “It's my true love, my own,
• 20 So sweet.

• “Oh! if he fight and win,’
• Fly away O my heart away!
• “I keep my love for him,
• So sweet:
• Oh! if he lose or win,
• He hath it still complete.”

   

• I.
• Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough,
• Atop on the topmost twig,—which the pluckers forgot somehow,—
• Forgot it not, nay, but got it not, for none could get it till now.

• II.
• Like the wild hyacinth flower which on the hills is found,
• Which the passing feet of the shepherds for ever tear & wound,
• Until the purple blossom is trodden into the ground.

   

• Fate claimed hard toll from Love, and did not spare;
• Are the dues paid, and is all Love's at last?
• Cling round me, sacred sweetness—hold me fast,—
• Oh! as I kneel, enfold mine eyes even there
• Within thy breast; and to Love's deepest lair
• Of memory bid thy soul with mine retreat
• And let our past years and our future meet
• In the warm darkness underneath thine hair.

• Say once for all: “Me Love accepts, and thee:
• 10Nor takes he other count of bygone years
• Not his, than do the affranchised earth and sea
• Of hours wherein the unyoked inordinate spheres
• Hurtled tumultuous round Time's ringing ears
• Ere yet one word gave light to victory.”

   

• Not that the earth is changing, O my God!
• Nor that the seasons totter in their walk,—
• Not that the common ill virulence of act and talk
• Seems close on the appointed period
  Added TextSeethes ever as a winepress ever trod,—
• Not therefore are we certain that the rod
• Weighs in thine hand to smite the world; though now
• Beneath thine hand so many nations bow,
• So many kings:—not therefore, O my God!

• But because Man is parcelled out in men
• 10 Wholly because Even thus; until because, for any wrongful blow,
• No man not stricken asks, “I would be told
• Why thou dost thus strike;” but his heart whispers then
• “He is he, I am I.” By this we know
• That the earth falls asunder, being old.

   

---

• The head & hands of murdered Cicero,
• Above his seat high in the Forum hung,
• Drew tears jeers and burning tears. When on the rung
• Of deftly a swift-mounted ladder, all aglow,
• Fulvia, Mark Antony's shameless wife, with show
• Of foot firm-poised and gleaming arm upflung,
• Bade her sharp needle pierce that god-like tongue
• Whose speech fed Rome even as the Tiber's flow—

• Ah! And thou, Cleopatra's Needle, that hadst thrid
• 10Great skirts of Time ere she and Antony hid
• Dead hope!—hast thou too reached, surviving death,
• A city of sweet speech scorned ? ,—on whose chill stone
• Keats withered, Coleridge pined, & Chatterton,
• Breadless, with poison winged the God-dowered breath?

   

---

• This is that blessed Mary, pre-elect
• God's Virgin. Gone is a great while, and she
• Dwelt young in Nazareth of Galilee.
• Her kin she cherished with devout respect:
• Her gifts were simpleness of intellect,
• And supreme patience. From her mother's knee
• Faithful and hopeful; wise in charity;
• Strong in grave peace; in pity circumspect.

• So held she through her girlhood; as it were
• 10 An angel-watered lily, that near God
• Grows and is quiet. Till, one dawn at home,
• She woke in her white bed, and had no fear
• At all,—yet wept till she sunshine, & felt awed;
• Because the fulness of the time was come.

   

• These be the images. Upon symbols. On that cloth of red
• Cloth set That's hung i' the centre, is the tripoint—each,
• Point perfect, save the second one, to teach
• That Christ is not yet born. The books (whose head
• Is golden Charity, even as Isaiah Paul hath said)
• Those virtues are wherein the soul is rich:
• Therefore on them the lily standeth, which
• Is purity, being interpreted.

• The seven-thorned briar & the palm seven-leav'd
• 10 Are their sorrow great sorrows and their great reward.
• Until the Time be full, the Holy One
• Waiteth without. She soon shall have achieved
• Her perfect purity: yea, God the Lord
• Shall soon vouchsafe His Son to be her Son.

---

       

• Here meet together the prefiguring day
• And day prefigured. “Eating, thou shalt stand,
• Feet shod, loins girt, thy road-staff in thine hand,
• With bloodstained door and lintel,”—did God say
• By Moses' mouth in ages passed away.
• And now, where this poor household doth comprise
• At Paschal-Feast two kindred families,—
• Lo! the slain lamb confronts the lamb to slay.

• The pyre is piled. What agony's crown attained,
• 10 What shadow of death the Boy's fair brow subdues
• Who holds that blood wherewith the porch is stained
• By Zachary the priest? John binds the shoes
• He deemed himself not worthy to unloose;
• And Mary culls the bitter herbs ordained.

   

• 10Rose-sheathed beside the rosebud tongue
• Lurks the young adder's tooth;
• And sweet the flower of &c &c

• Rose-sheathed the infant adder's tooth
• Lurks by the rosebud tongue;
• Milk-mild the earliest drops are wrung
• From hemlock reft of ruth;
• And sweet the fragrance of flower of his first youth
• When Michael Scott was young.

• Rose-sheathed beside the rosebud ton

   

• Behold Fiammetta, [?] shown in Vision here.
• Gloom-girt 'mid Spring-flushed apple-growth she stands;
• And as she sways the branches with her hands,
• Along her arm the sundered bloom falls sheer,
• In separate petals shed, each like a tear;
• While from the quivering bough the bird expands
• His wings. And lo! thy spirit understands
• Life shaken & shower'd & flown, & Death drawn near.

• All stirs with change. Her garments beat the air:
• 10 The angel circling round her aureole
• Shimmers in flight against the tree's grey bole:
• While she, with reassuring eyes most fair,
• A presage and a promise stands; as 'twere
• On Death's dark storm the rainbow of the Soul.

DGR    

• Water, for anguish of the solstice,—nay,
• But dip the vessel slowly, nay, but lean
• And mark how at its marge[?] verge the wave sighs in
• Reluctant. Hush! Beyond the/all depth all depth away
• The heat lies silent at the brink of day:
• Now trails the hand upon the viol-string
• That sobs, and the brown faces cease to sing,
• Sad with the whole of pleasure. Her eyes stray
• In sunshine; through her life mouth the pipe doth creep
• 10 And leaves them it pouting; shadowed here, the grass
• Is cool against her naked side. Let be:—
• Do not now speak unto her, lest she weep.
• Nor name this ever: be it as it was,—
• Life touching life/hands/palms[?] lips with Immortality.

   

• This is the place. Twas Even here the dauntless heart/soul soul,
• The unflinching hand, wrought on, till in yon that nook,
• As twere upon that on that very bed, his life partook
• Of thy new New birth, & passed. Yon river's distant shoal,
• Down through/Round th Past the steep coast's byway's teeming gully-hole,
• Faced each day's labour his work-window, whence his eyes would stare,
• Not unto any sight that met them there,
• But to the unfettered irreversible goal.

• This cupboard, Holy of Holies, held the cloud
• 10 Of his soul writ & limned; and in this this other one,
• His true wife's household closet charge, full oft to their abode
• Yielded for daily bread the martyr's stone,
• Ere yet their food might be that Bread alone,
• The words now home-heard from the mouth of God.

May 1880    

• When I made answer, I began, “Alas!
• How many sweet thoughts & how much desire
• Led these two onward s to the dolorous pass!”—
• Then turned to them, as who would fain inquire,
• And said: “Francesca, these thine agonies
• Drew Wring tears for pity and grief which that they inspire:
• But tell me,—in the season of sweet sighs,
• When and what way did Love instruct you so
• That he in your vague longings made you wise?”
• 10 Then she to me: “There is no greater woe
• Than the remembrance left of past happy days
• In misery; and this thy guide doth know.
• But if the first beginnings to retrace
• Of our sad love can bring yield thee solace here,
• So will I be as one that weeps and says.

• “One day we read, for pastime and sweet cheer,
• Of Lancelot, how he found Love tyrannous:
• We were alone and without any fear.
• Our eyes were drawn together, reading thus,
• 20 Full oft, and still our cheeks would pale and glow;
• But one sole point it was that conquered us.
• For when we read of that great lover, how
• He kissed the longed-for smile as a great thing smile which he had longed to win,—
• Then he whom nought can sever from me now
• For ever, kissed my mouth, all quivering.
• Our Galahalt A pander was the book, and he that writ:
• Upon that day we read no more therein.”

• Upon a day, to pass the time, we read
• We were alone and free of guilt or dread
• He kissed the smile he long had longèd for
• For ever, kissed my mouth trembling all o'er
• Upon that day we read not any more

       

• Low drooped trembling Rose Mary,
• Then up as though in a dream stood she.
• “Come, my heart, it is time to go;
• This is the hour that was stricken slow we have dreaded so
• When thy pulse quailed in the nights we know.

Deleted Text
O my shame, it is shown, shown, shown!
Come back, dear love, or I die alone!
O Lord God, one are we, and thine!
As for one soul, be it his and mine,
10The shrift he bears from the holy shrine!

• Ah me! as yet but a day apart!— “Three days more!” she said to her heart;
• Added Text“And then he comes, and we will not part.
• Yet God be thanked that I still could see!
• His death by Heaven's help shall not be;/life shall be safe assuredly
  Added TextI have saved his life assuredly
• But shall I live till he come to look on me?
• O he shall come back assuredly

Deleted Text
O my heart, and where shall I hide
The bridegroom's choice till she be a bride?
Through what thorn s brake, in what dusky dreary heavy gloam
To what wind's wail shall my footsteps roam,
20Till my wedding-music fetch me home?

• Tall she stood with a flame in her eye cheek flushed high
• And a cheek glance gaze to burn the heart-strings by.
• 'Twas the lightning-flash o'er sky and plain
• Ere labouring thunders heave the chain
• From the floodgates of the drowning rain.

• The lady watched her, pallid and chill looked on her, sore in pain numbed & still
• As on a hurt thing that she yet must kill that's yet to kill.
• Then rose the tears that no strength could might she might not stem;
• The mother clung to the daughter's hem
  Added TextThe love burned [?] atburned high with the burning shame,
• 30And all the stormtide burst on them.

• Heart to heart and face against face,
  Added TextClosely locked, they clung without speech,
• They shook there, locked in a long embrace;
  Added TextAnd these the mirrored souls shook each to each,
• As the sky- cloud-moon and the water 's-moon
• Neath cloud and wave Through [?] and stormy hours to the wind's one tune
• Shake in wild hours of the Together shake at the Shake to the night And Shake sore within face to face in the night's mid-noon

• As the cloud-moon & the water-moon
• Shake face to face in the Shake face to face to the storm-wind's tune
• In rainy heavy tossing bowers of the night's mid-noon.

   

• What thing unto/weeping to thing unto mine ear
• Wouldst thou convey,—what secret thing,
• O wandering hurrying water ever whispering?
• Surely thy speech shall be of her.
• Thou water, O thou whispering wanderer tremulous whisperer,
• What message dost thou bring?

• Say, hath not Love leaned low
• Before/Far off This hour beside thy fa ir well-head,
• And in those [?] there through jealous hollowed fingers said
• 10 The thing that most I long to know,—
• Murmuring with curls that all dabbled in thy flow
• And washed lips/mouth lips rosy red?

• He told it to thee there
• Where thy voice hath a louder tone;
• But where it welters to this little moan
• His will decrees that I should hear.
• Now speak: for with the silence is no fear,
• And I am all alone.

• When shall we meet, who now
  Added TextShall Love not yet still endow
• 20 Are sundered— [?] I shall One hour with life, and I and she
• [?] Strain in one kiss the soul of memory?
• Say, stream; lest Love should disavow
• Thy service, and the bird upon the bough
• Speak Sing first to tell it me.

• Their ghosts within the roadside doorways dwell
Along my road their ghosts in doorways dwell have darkened doors wherein to dw[ell]
• And &c.

• That while the maze hath still the its bower for quest
• 30My burning heart should cease to seek

• May any bulwark bind its
• Shall not thy trammelled waters spread

• What thing unto mine ear
• 20 Wouldst thou convey,—what secret thing,
• O wandering water ever whispering?
• Surely thy speech shall be of her.
• Thou water, O thou whispering wanderer,
• What message dost thou bring?

• For hath not Love leaned low
• Beside thy welling water- distant water-head,
• And in thine ear through jealous fingers said
• The thing that most I long to know,—
Deleted Text
With dabbled curls [?]
[?]
[?]
[?]
• Each wing the while unto its way-shadow
• 30In weltering circling [?]
Deleted Text
Piled deep below the screening apple branch
They lie with bitter apple [?]

   

• The hour which might have been yet might not be,
• Which man's & woman's heart conceived & bore
• Yet whereof life was barren,—on what shore
• Bides it the breaking of Time's weary sea?
• Bondchild of all consummate joys set free,
• It somewhere serves, and through the [?] door sighs and serves, and mute before
• [?] high house [?] heaven evermore
  Added TextThe house of Love, hears through the echoing door
• His hours elect in choral consonancy.

• But lo! what souls are these now hand in hand
• 10With mingled transports tread the immortal[?] strand
• With eyes where awestruck memory lights love home?
• Lo! how the little outcast hour has turned
• And [?] leaped to them and in their faces yearned:—
• “I am your child: O parents, ye have come!”

   

• What thing unto mine ear
• 90Wouldst thou convey—what secret thing
• O wandering water ever whispering?
• Nay speak, for I am bent to hear if thou will speak of her
• What message dost thou bring,
• Thou water O thou whispering wanderer.

• Nay, speak some little word of her
  Added TextSurely/Nay but thy speech shall must be of her

• What whisperest thou? Nay, why
• Speak of Name the dead days? I mind them well:
• Their ghosts in many darkened doorways dwell
• With desolate eyes to know them by.
• That/One That hour must be born ere it can die:
• Of that I'd have thee tell.

• Hear now But hear, before thou speak!
• 40 Again Withhold all, I pray, the vain behest
• That in the maze whose own is still to seek while the maze hath still its bower for quest
• My burning heart forego the quest should cease to seek.
• Be sure that Love ordained for souls more meek
• His [?]s and roadside dells of rest.

• Stream, when this silver thread
• In flood-time is a torrent brown
• What hand May any hand coop up thy bulwark bind its foaming crown?
• Shall not thy waters sigh surge and spread
• And to the crannied boulders of thy their bed
• 50 Still send shoot the dead dry leaves down?

• If such [?] thing have Let no rebuke find place
• In speech of thine, it needs or it shall prove
• That thou dost ill expound the [?] words of Love,
• Even as thine eddy's rippling race
• Would blur the perfect image of his face.
• I will have none thereof.

Yet now thou sayst was that not was with[?]

• O learn and understand
• That 'gainst the wrongs himself did wreak
• Love sought her aid; until her shadowy cheek
• And eyes beseeching gave command;
• And compassed in her close compassionate hand
• My heart must burn & speak.