The grasses all were lifeless, sere, and dry;
Barren the boughs, where leaves had lent their shade;
In every empty nest the snow heaped high
And water-courses in their flight were stayed;
And all the dumb and stricken solitude
Was like some undiscovered arctic zone,
Where no flower grew, where no bird reared her brood;
When presently, in silvery monotone,
The frozen streams began to sing their chimes;
As by some bold and swift enchantment wrought,
Such as we read of, in far fairy climes,
The fields and trees with green were overshot;

Tell it, O wind, from morning till night,
Whisper it, warble it, sound its delight,
And you, O roses, beneath your blushes,
Breathe it soon to the listening thrushes,
And thrushes, be sure you carol it sweet,
Till the echoes, themselves, are fain to repeat!

Oh, wandering tide, with your silver fret,
Float it wherever your feet are set;
And you, O sea, with your thunder tone,
Pass it onward, from zone to zone,—
And to all the earth the secret tell,
That my lover, he loves me, he loves me well!

I LOVED illustrious cities and the crowds
That eddy through their incandescent nights.
I loved remote horizons with far clouds
Girdled, and fringed about with snowy heights.
I loved fair women, their sweet, conscious ways
Of wearing among hands that covet and plead
The rose ablossom at the rainbow's base
That bounds the world's desire and all its need.
Nature I worshipped, whose fecundity
Embraces every vision the most fair,
Of perfect benediction. From a boy
I gloated on existence. Earth to me
Seemed all-sufficient and my sojourn there

Canto III.

The Girdle, or Love-Token.

1.

Short Taste of Pleasures , how dost thou torment
A liquorish Soul, when once inflam'd by thee!
Desire's sweet-cruel edge might soon relent
Didst thou not whet it to that keen degree
That nothing but complete fruition will
The longing of its wakened stomach fill.

2.

The Seaman, who hath with unwearied pain
Wrought through a thousand storms, and gain'd the sight

I SEND you roses—red, like love,
And white, like death, sweet friend:
Born in your bosom to rejoice,
Languish, and droop, and end.

If the white roses tell of death,
Let the red roses mend
The talk with true stories of love
Unchanging till the end.

Red and white roses, love and death—
What else is left to send?
For what is life but love, the means,
And death, true Wife, the end?

A WORLD of leafage murmurous and a twinkle;
The green, delicious plenitude of June;
Love and laughter and song
The blue day long
Going to the same glad, golden tune—
The same glad tune!

Clouds on the dim, delighting skies a sprinkle;
Poplars black in the wake of a setting moon;
Love and languor and sleep
And the star-sown deep
Going to the same good, golden tune—
The same good tune!

Love , which is lust, is the Lamp in the Tomb.
Love, which is lust, is the Call from the Gloom.

Love, which is lust, is the Main of Desire.
Love, which is lust, is the Centric Fire.

So man and woman will keep their trust,
Till the very Springs of the Sea run dust.

Yea, each with the other will lose and win,
Till the very Sides of the Grave fall in.

For the strife of Love's the abysmal strife,
And the word of Love is the Word of Life.

And they that go with the Word unsaid,
Though they seem of the living, are damned and dead.

After the grim daylight,
Night—
Night and the stars and the sea!
Only the sea, and the stars
And the star-shown sails and spars—
Naught else in the night for me!

Over the northern height,
Light—
Light and the dawn of a day
With nothing for me but a breast
Laboured with love's unrest,
And the irk of an idle May!

Erechtheus next th' Athenian Sceptre sway'd,
Whose Rule the State with joynt Consent obey'd;
So mix'd his Justice with his Valour flow'd,
His Reign one Scene of Princely Goodness shew'd.
Four hopeful Youths, as many Females bright,
Sprung from his Loyns, and sooth'd him with Delight.
Two of these Sisters, of a lovelier Air,
Excell'd the rest, tho' all the rest were fair.
Procris , to Cephalus in Wedlock ty'd,
Bless'd the young Silvan with a blooming Bride:
For Orithyia Boreas suffer'd Pain,

I dreamed again, and lo, a solemn glory
Transfigured earth and sea;
The vibrant universe revealed a story
Of love and power to me.
Oh, never was such light on earth beholden,
Save when the sacred gleam,
Upon the spirits of the seers olden,
Breathed mystery and dream.

I think that haply angel hands had chanced
The door of some bright zone
Of heaven to open, so to me there glanced
The radiance of the throne.
'Twas not as earth-light that must go unbending
Into the fields afar,
But all diffuse, it spread abroad unending