FOR THIS TRUE NOBLENESS I

SEEK IN VAIN'

'FOR this true nobleness I seek in vain, In woman and in man I find it not; I almost weary of my earthly lot, My life-springs are dried up with burning pain.'

Thou find'st it not? I pray thee look again,

Look inward through the depths of thine own soul.

How is it with thee? Art thou sound and whole ?

Doth narrow search show thee no earthly stain?

BE NOBLE! and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own;
Then wilt thou see it gleam in many
eyes,

Then will pure light around thy path be shed,

And thou wilt nevermore be sad and lone. 1840.

MY LOVE'

NOT as all other women are
Is she that to my soul is dear;
Her glorious fancies come from far,
Beneath the silver evening-star,
And yet her heart is ever near.

1840.

Great feelings hath she of her own,
Which lesser souls may never know;
God giveth them to her alone,
And sweet they are as any tone
Wherewith the wind may choose to blow. 10

Yet in herself she dwelleth not,
Although no home were half so fair;
No simplest duty is forgot,

1 On the poems of 1840 and 1841, see Scudder's Life of Lowell, vol. i, pp. 76-97.