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Not less, tho' dogs of Faction bay,

Would serve his kind in deed and word, Certain, if knowledge bring the sword, That knowledge takes the sword away

Would love the gleams of good that broke From either side, nor veil his eyes:

And if some dreadful need should rise Would strike, and firmly, and one stroke:

To-morrow yet would reap to-day,

As we bear blossom of the dead;
Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed
Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay.

THE GOOSE

I KNEW an old wife lean and poor,
Her rags scarce held together;
There strode a stranger to the door,
And it was windy weather.

He held a goose upon his arm,

66

He utter'd rhyme and reason,

'Here, take the goose, and keep you warm, It is a stormy season."

She caught the white goose by the leg,

A goose 'twas no great matter.

The goose let fall a golden egg

With cackle and with clatter.

She dropt the goose, and caught the pelf,
And ran to tell her neighbours ;
And bless'd herself, and cursed herself,
And rested from her labours.

And feeding high, and living soft,
Grew plump and able-bodied;
Until the grave churchwarden doff'd,
The parson smirk'd and nodded.

So sitting, served by man and maid,
She felt her heart grow prouder :
But ah the more the white goose laid
It clack'd and cackled louder.

It clutter'd here, it chuckled there;
It stirr'd the old wife's mettle:
She shifted in her elbow-chair,

And hurl'd the pan and kettle.

"A quinsy choke thy cursed note!
Then wax'd her anger stronger.
"Go, take the goose, and wring her throat,
I will not bear it longer."

Then yelp'd the cur, and yawl'd the cat ;
Ran Gaffer, stumbled Gammer,

The goose flew this way and flew that,
And fill'd the house with clamour.

As head and heels upon the floor
They flounder'd all together,
There strode a stranger to the door,
And it was windy weather:

He took the goose upon his arm,

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He utter'd words of scorning;

So keep you cold, or keep you warm,
It is a stormy morning.'

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The wild wind rang from park and plain,
And round the attics rumbled,

Till all the tables danced again,
And half the chimneys tumbled.

The glass blew in, the fire blew out,
The blast was hard and harder.
Her cap blew off, her gown blew up,
And a whirlwind clear'd the larder;

And while on all sides breaking loose
Her household fled the danger,
Quoth she, "The Devil take the goose,
And God forget the stranger!

"

LI

SONNET

MINE be the strength of spirit fierce and free,

Like some broad river rushing down alone,

With the selfsame impulse wherewith he was thrown From his loud fount upon the echoing lea :—

Which with increasing might doth forward flee
By town, and tower, and hill, and cape, and isle,
And in the middle of the green salt sea
Keeps his blue waters fresh for many a mile.
Mine be the Power which ever to its sway
Will win the wise at once, and by degrees
May into uncongenial spirits flow;
Even as the great gulfstream of Florida
Floats far away into the Northern seas
The lavish growths of southern Mexico.

LII

ΤΟ

I

ALL good things have not kept aloof,
Nor wandered into other ways:
I have not lacked thy mild reproof,
Nor golden largess of thy praise,
But life is full of weary days.

II

Shake hands, my friend, across the brink
Of that deep grave to which I go.
Shake hands once more: I cannot sink
So far far down, but I shall know
Thy voice, and answer from below.

III

When, in the darkness over me,

The four-handed mole shall scrape,
Plant thou no dusky cypress-tree,

Nor wreathe thy cap with doleful crape,
But pledge me in the flowing grape.

IV

And when the sappy field and wood

Grow green beneath the showery gray

And rugged barks begin to bud,

And through damp holts, newflushed with May, Ring sudden laughters of the Jay;

Then let wise Nature work her will
And on my clay her darnels grow.
Come only, when the days are still,
And at my headstone whisper low,
And tell me if the woodbines blow,

VI

If thou art blest, my mother's smile
Undimmed, if bees are on the wing:
Then cease, my friend, a little while,
That I may hear the throstle sing
His bridal song, the boast of spring.

VII

Sweet as the noise in parched plains
Of bubbling wells that fret the stones,
(If any sense in me remains)

Thy words will be; thy cheerful tones
As welcome to my crumbling bones.

LIII

BUONAPARTE

He thought to quell the stubborn hearts of oak,
Madman 1-to chain with chains, and bind with bands
That island queen that sways the floods and lands
From Ind to Ind, but in fair daylight woke,
When from her wooden walls, lit by sure hands,
With thunders, and with lightnings, and with smoke,
Peal after peal, the British battle broke,
Lulling the brine against the Coptic sands.
We taught him lowlier moods, when Elsinore
Heard the war moan along the distant sea,
Rocking with shattered spars, with sudden fires
Flamed over: at Trafalgar yet once more
We taught him: late he learned humility
Perforce, like those whom Gideon schooled with briars.

LIV

SONNETS

I

O BEAUTY, passing beauty! sweetest Sweet !

How can'st thou let me waste my youth in sighs?

I only ask to sit beside thy feet.

Thou knowest I dare not look into thine eyes. Might I but kiss thy hand!

I dare not fold My arms about thee-scarcely dare to speak. And nothing seems to me so wild and bold,

As with one kiss to touch thy blessèd cheek.

Methinks if I should kiss thee, no control
Within the thrilling brain could keep afloat
Even while I spoke,

The subtle spirit.

The bare word KISS hath made my inner soul
To tremble like a lutestring, ere the note
Hath melted in the silence that it broke.

LV

II

BUT were I loved, as I desire to be,

What is there in the great sphere of the earth,
And range of evil between death and birth,
That I should fear, if I were loved by thee?
All the inner, all the outer world of pain

Clear Love would pierce and cleave, if thou wert mine,
As I have heard that, somewhere in the main,
Fresh-water-springs come up through bitter brine.
"Twere joy, not fear, clasped hand-in-hand with thee,
To wait for death-mute-careless of all ills,
Apart upon a mountain, though the surge
Of some new deluge from a thousand hills
Flung leagues of roaring foam into the gorge
Below us, as far on as eye could see.

LVI

οἱ ῥέοντες

I

ALL thoughts, all creeds, all dreams are true,
All visions wild and strange;

Man is the measure of all truth

Unto himself. All truth is change:

All men do walk in sleep, and all
Have faith in that they dream:

For all things are as they seem to all,
And all things flow like a stream.

II

There is no rest, no calm, no pause,
Nor good nor ill, nor light nor shade,

Nor essence nor eternal laws :

For nothing is but all is made.

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