AT HOME

Christina Beorgina fiossetti
THE UNSEEN WORLD Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve :
For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I
WHEN I was dead, my spirit turn'd

had,
To seek the much-frequented house : Better by far you should forget and smile
I pass’d the door, and saw my friends Than that you should remember and be
Feasting beneath green orange-boughs ;

sad.
From hand to hand they push'd the wine,
They suck'd the pulp of plum and peach ;

AFTER DEATH
They sang, they jested, and they laugh’d,
For each was lov'd of each.

THE curtains were half drawn, the floor

was swept I listen'd to their honest chat:

And strewn with rushes, rosemary

and

may Said one : “To-morrow we shall be Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay, Plod plod along the featureless sands, Where through the lattice ivy-shadows And coasting miles and miles of sea.

crept. Said one : “ Before the turn of tide

He lean'd above me, thinking that I slept We will achieve the eyrie-seat.”

And could not hear him ; but I heard him Said one : “To-morrow shall be like

say : To-day, but much more sweet.”

“ Poor child, poor child :” and as he turn'd

away “ To-morrow," said they, strong with hope, Came a deep silence, and I knew he wept.

And dwelt upon the pleasant way: He did not touch the shroud, or raise the “ To-morrow,” cried they, one and all,

fold While no one spoke of yesterday.

That hid my face, or take my hand in Their life stood full at blessed noon ;

his, I, only I, had pass'd away :

Or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head : “ To-morrow and to-day," they cried ; He did not love me living ; but once dead I was of yesterday.

He pitied me; and very sweet it is

To know he still is warm though I am cold. I shiver'd comfortless, but cast

No chill across the table-cloth ; I, all forgotten, shiver'd, sad

To stay, and yet to part how loth : I pass’d from the familiar room,

PARDON the faults in me, I who from love had pass'd away,

For the love of years ago : Like the remembrance of a guest

Good-by.
That tarrieth but a day.

I must drift across the sea,
I must sink into the snow,

I must die.

WIFE TO HUSBAND

ABNEGATION

FROM “MONNA INNOMINATA”

FLUTTERED WINGS
The splendor of the kindling day,

The splendor of the setting sun,
If there be any one can take my place These move my soul to wend its way,
And make you happy whom I grieve to

And have done grieve,

With all we grasp and toil amongst and Think not that I can grudge it, but be

say. lieve I do commend you to that nobler grace, The paling roses of a cloud, That readier wit than mine, that sweeter The fading bow that arches space, face ;

These woo my fancy toward my shroud , Yea, since your riches make me rich, con- Toward the place ceive

Of faces veil'd, and heads discrown'd and I too am crown'd, while bridal crowns I

bow'd. weave, And thread the bridal dance with jocund The nation of the awful stars, pace:

The wandering star whose blaze is For if I did not love you, it might be

brief, That I should grudge you some one dear These make me beat against the bars delight;

Of my grief ; But since the heart is yours that was mine My tedious grief, twin to the life it mars.

own, Your pleasure is my pleasure, right my O fretted heart toss'd to and fro, right,

So fain to flee, so fain to rest !
Your honorable freedom makes me free, All glories that are high or low,
And you companion'd I am not alone.

East or west,
Grow dim to thee who art so fain to go.

TRUST

PASSING AND GLASSING

All things that pass

Are woman's looking-glass ;
They show her how her bloom must fade,
And she herself be laid
With wither'd roses in the shade;

With wither'd roses and the fallen peach,
Unlovely, out of reach

Of summer joy that was.

IF I could trust mine own self with your

fate, Shall I not rather trust it in God's

hand ?
Without whose will one lily doth not

stand,
Nor sparrow fall at his appointed date ;
Who numbereth the innumerable sand,
Who weighs the wind and water with a

weight,
To whom the world is neither small nor

great Whose knowledge foreknew every plan we

plann'd. Searching my heart for all that touches

you,
I find there only love and love's good-

will
Helpless to help and impotent to do,
Of understanding dull, of sight most dim;
And therefore I commend you back to

Him
Whose love your love's capacity can fill.

All things that pass

Are woman's tiring-glass;
The faded lavender is sweet,
Sweet the dead violet
Cull'd and laid by and car'd for yet ;

The dried-up violets and dried lavender
Still sweet, may comfort her,

Nor need she cry Alas !

All things that pass

Are wisdom's looking-glass;
Being full of hope and fear, and still
Brimful of good or ill,
According to our work and will ;

IX

For there is nothing new beneath the sun ;
Our doings have been done,

And that which shall be was.

THE THREAD OF LIFE

THE irresponsive silence of the land,
The irresponsive sounding of the sea,
Speak both one message of one sense to

me :-
Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand
Thou too aloof, bound with the flawless

band Of inner solitude ; we bind not thee ; But who from thy self-chain shall set thee

free? What heart shall touch thy heart? what

hand thy hand ? -
And I am sometimes proud and sometimes

meek,
And sometimes I remember days of old
When fellowship seem'd not so far to seek
And all the world and I seem'd much less

cold,
And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,
And hope felt strong and life itself not

weak.

STAR Sirius and the Pole Star dwell afar
Beyond the drawings each of other's

strength :
One blazes through the brief bright sum-

mer's length
Lavishing life-heat from a flaming car;
While one unchangeable upon a throne
Broods o'er the frozen heart of earth

alone,
Content to reign the bright particular star
Of some who wander or of some who

groan. They own no drawings each of other's

strength, Nor vibrate in a visible sympathy, Nor veer along their courses each toward

each : Yet are their orbits pitch'd in harmony Of one dear heaven, across whose depth

and length Mayhap they talk together without speech.

VI

Two gaz’d into a pool, he gaz’d and she, FROM “LATER LIFE" Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I

think, Pale and reluctant on the water's brink,

As on the brink of parting which must be. We lack, yet cannot fix upon the lack : Each eyed the other's aspect, she and he, Not this, nor that; yet somewhat, cer- Each felt one hungering heart leap up and tainly.

sink, We see the things we do not yearn to see Each tasted bitterness which both must Around us : and what see we glancing back?

drink, Lost hopes that leave our hearts upon the There on the brink of life's dividing sea. rack,

Lilies upon the surface, deep below Hopes that were never ours yet seem'd to Two wistful faces craving each for each, be,

Resolute and reluctant without speech :For which we steer'd on life's salt stormy A sudden ripple made the faces flow

One moment join'd, to vanish out of reach : Braving the sunstroke and the frozen pack. So these hearts join'd, and ah! were parted If thus to look behind is all in vain, And all in vain to look to left or right, Why face we not our future once again, Launching with hardier hearts across the TWIST ME A CROWN

main, Straining dim eyes to catch the invisible Twist me a crown of wind-flowers; sight,

That I may fly away
And strong to bear ourselves in patient To hear the singers at their song,

pain
?

And players at their play.

sea