All day within the dreamy house, The doors upon their hinges creak'd; The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek❜d, Or from the crevice peer'd about. Old faces glimmer'd thro' the doors, Old footsteps trod the upper floors, The sparrow's chirrup on the roof, The poplar made, did all confound ΤΟ I. 'LEAR-HEADED friend, whose joyful scorn, Ray-fringed eyelids of the morn Roof not a glance so keen as thine: 2. Low-cowering shall the Sophist sit; A gentler death shall Falsehood die, 3. Weak Truth a-leaning on her crutch, Wan, wasted Truth in her utmost need, Thy kingly intellect shall feed, Until she be an athlete bold, And weary with a finger's touch Those writhed limbs of lightning speed; Like that strange angel which of old, Wrestled with wandering Israel, Past Yabbok brook the livelong night, THOU MADELINE. I. HOU art not steep'd in golden languors, Ever varying Madeline. Thro' light and shadow thou dost range, Sudden glances, sweet and strange, Delicious spites and darling angers, And airy forms of flitting change. 2. Smiling, frowning, evermore, Revealings deep and clear are thine Frowns perfect-sweet along the brow Thy smile and frown are not aloof From one another, Each to each is dearest brother; Hues of the silken sheeny woof Momently shot into each other. 14 All the mystery is thine; 3. A subtle, sudden flame, By veering passion fann'd, About thee breaks and dances; O'erflows thy calmer glances, But when I turn away, Thou, willing me to stay, Wooest not, nor vainly wranglest ; Then in madness and in bliss, WHEN I. HEN cats run home and light is come, And the far-off stream is dumb, And the whirring sail goes round, 2. When merry milkmaids click the latch, And rarely smells the new-mown hay, And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch Twice or thrice his roundelay, Twice or thrice his roundelay: Alone and warming his five wits, SECOND SONG. THY Thy tuwhoos of yesternight, Which upon the dark afloat, So took echo with delight, So took echo with delight, That her voice untuneful grown, |