TO ROBERT BROWNING (From the same) There is delight in singing, tho' none hear So varied in discourse. But warmer climes The Siren waits thee, singing song for song. INTRODUCTION TO THE LAST FRUIT OFF AN OLD TREE (1853) I strove with none, for none was worth my strife. I warmed both hands before the fire of Life; Bryan Waller Procter 1787-1874 A PETITION TO TIME (From Poems, 1850) Touch us gently, Time! Let us glide adown thy stream Humble voyagers are We, Husband, wife, and children three(One is lost, an angel, fled To the azure overhead!) Touch us gently, Time! We've not proud nor soaring wings: Our ambition, our content Lies in simple things. Bartley Coleridge 1796-1849 SONG (From Poems, 1833) She is not fair to outward view Until she smiled on me; Oh! then I saw her eye was bright, But now her looks are coy and cold, And yet I cease not to behold Than smiles of other maidens are. Charles Lamb 1775-1834 TO HESTER (1805) When maidens such as Hester die, A month or more hath she been dead, A springy motion in her gait, Of pride and joy no common rate, I know not by what name beside Her parents held the Quaker rule, Which doth the human feeling cool, But she was train'd in Nature's school, Nature had blest her. A waking eye, a prying mind, My sprightly neighbour, gone before When from thy cheerful eyes a ray Thomas bood 1798-1845 THE DEATH BED (From Poems, 1825) We watched her breathing thro' the night, So silently we seemed to speak, So slowly moved about, As we had lent her half our powers Our very hopes belied our fears, For when the morn came dim and sad, Her quiet eyelids closed-she had THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS ("Drowned! drowned!"-Hamlet) (First published in Hood's Magazine, 1844) Take her up tenderly, Look at her garments Make no deep scrutiny Past all dishonor, Death has left on her Only the beautiful. Still, for all slips of hers, One of Eve's family Wipe those poor lips of hers Oozing so clammily. |