MAIDEN, when such a soul as thine is born, IX. My Love, I have no fear that thou shouldst die; Whose numbering-clock is still thy gentle kiss, We live and love, well knowing that there is X. I CANNOT think that thou shouldst pass away, A piece of nature that can have no flaw, The debt of Love 1 will more fully pay, Not downcast with the thought of thee so high, But rather raised to be a nobler man, And more divine in my humanity, As knowing that the waiting eyes which scan My life are lighted by a purer being, And ask meek, calm-browed deeds, with it agreeing. XI. THE HAVEN. INTO the unruffled shelter of thy love My bark leapt homeward from a rugged sea, And furled its sails, and dropped right peacefully Hope's anchor, quiet as a nested dove : Thou givest me all that can the true soul move To nobleness, a clear simplicity, That, in the humblest man to-day, can see Theme for high rhyme as ever poet wove, A noiseless love that makes things common rare, And custom-weary toil with heaven rife, – A faith that finds great meanings everywhere, 1841. |