I longed to love a full-boughed beech
And be as high as he:
I stretched an arm within his reach,
And signalled unity.
But with his drip he forced a breach,
And tried to poison me.

I gave the grasp of partnership
To one of other race--
A plane: he barked him strip by strip
From upper bough to base;
And me therewith; for gone my grip,
My arms could not enlace.

In new affection next I strove
To coll an ash I saw,
And he in trust received my love;
Till with my soft green claw
I cramped and bound him as I wove . . .

O hands that I have held in mine,
That knew my kisses and my tears,
Hands that in other years
Have poured my balm, have poured my wine;

Women, once loved, and always mine,
I call to you across the years,
I bring a gift of tears,
I bring my tears to you as wine.

At morn I plucked a rose and gave it Thee,
A rose of joy and happy love and peace,
A rose with scarce a thorn:
But in the chillness of a second morn
My rose bush drooped, and all its gay increase
Was but one thorn that wounded me.

I plucked the thorn and offered it to Thee;
And for my thorn Thou gavest love and peace,
Not joy this mortal morn:
If Thou hast given much treasure for a thorn,
Wilt Thou not give me for my rose increase
Of gladness, and all sweets to me?

My thorny rose, my love and pain, to Thee

Nay, lady, one frown is enough
In a life as soon over as this—
And though minutes seem long in a huff,
They're minutes 'tis pity to miss!
The smiles you imprison so lightly
Are reckon'd, like days in eclipse;
And though you may smile again brightly,
You've lost so much light from your lips!
Pray, lady, smile!

The cup that is longest untasted
May be with our bliss running o'er,
And, love when we will, we have wasted
An age in not loving before!
Perchance Cupid's forging a fetter
To tie us together some day,

O judgment sleep!
I love an unkind thief.
Let me be friend of Frailty
For my sick heart's relief.

I would be as the shore's sand
Subject to an advancing sea,
I would be as sunken land
Swept by a tide's strong mastery.

But my contemning mind is as a lighthouse tower,
And I am sore for strength, and lashed because of power.

I LOVE thee well, thou solitary Cave,
Though thee no legend, or of war or love,
Or mermaid issuing from her coral grove
Ennoble: nought beside the fretful wave
That round thy portal arch doth idly rave,
Has waked thine echoes; nor in lonely age
Has seaman sought thee for his hermitage,
That ocean's voice might lull him to his grave
I love thee for his sake who brought me here,
Companion of my wildered walk, and bore
A part in all those visions dim and dear
In which my tranced spirit loves to soar,
When gales sigh soft, and rills are murmuring near,

Out at sunrise on Romney Marsh
We hear the curlew call,
The young lambs crying to the sheep
Within the old sea-wall;
The bleak tree that the sea-wind strikes
Is bowed across the lilied dykes,
All heaven drifting with the lark,
The lark that sings for all.

You gather mushrooms from the grass,
The newborn mushrooms white,
And stoop about with tender cries
That come of pure delight.
The sheep-lit pastures run for miles
With distant villages for isles,
And Lymne's grey castle on the down
Beholds us from the height.

How hard from loving to refrain,
How hard to bear the lover's pain,
But harder still than all, to prove
The pangs of unrequitted love.
Nor worth, nor wisdom now avail
The fair one's bosom to assail;
'Gainst each accomplishment 'tis steel'd,
And only will to riches yield.
Oh! may the wretch be doubly curst,
Who taught the use of money first!
How, by his fatal art has he
Made friends and brothers disagree!
What wars, what slaughters we behold
For sake of this detested gold!
To gold, the source of ill to all,
We hapless lovers owe our fall,

The usually hateful crow—
How lovely on the morn of snow!

All my weakness, all my failings,
Lord, in sorrow I deplore;
Make me purer, stronger, better,
That my heart may love thee more
I have failed to follow closely
All the steps marked out for me,
Yet I dare to hope formercy,
For my heart still trusts in thee.
Henceforth, Saviour, walk beside me,
Lead me by thy loving hand
Till my feet shall reach the portals
Of the dear Immanuel's land

Full of failings, yet I come,
Saviour, make my heart thy home!
Let it be, let it be,
Full of light and purity let it be, let it, let it be.