• 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.

---