Thou hadst smiled in god-like mirth, Thou hadst lived serene, alone, Thou hadst lived a lord of earth, If but thy heart were stone. ERNEST MYERS. P THE SEA-LIMITS. ONSIDER the sea's listless chime; The murmur of the earth's own shell. Secret continuance sublime Is the sea's end: our sight may pass No furlong further. Since time was, This sound hath told the lapse of time. No quiet, which is death's,-it hath As the world's heart of rest and wrath, Last utterly, the whole sky stands, Listen alone beside the sea, Listen alone among the woods; Shall have one sound alike to thee: Hark! where the murmurs of thronged men Surge and smile back, and surge again,Still the one voice of wave and tree. Gather a shell from the strown beach The same desire and mystery, And all mankind is thus at heart Not anything but what thou art : And Earth, Sea, Man, are all in each. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. VIOLETS. IOLETS, shy violets! How many hearts with thee compare ! Ravish the enraptured air With sweetness, dewy fresh and rare! Violets, shy violets! Human hearts to me shall be Viewless violets in the grass, And as I pass, Odours and sweet imagery Will wait on mine and gladden me ! GEORGE MEREDITH. THE APOLOGY. HINK me not unkind and rude That I walk alone in grove and glen; I go to the god of the wood To fetch his word to men. Tax not my sloth that I Fold my arms beside the brook; Each cloud that floated in the sky Writes a letter in my book. Chide me not, laborious band, Every aster in my hand Goes home loaded with a thought. There was never mystery But 'tis figured in the flowers; Was never secret history But birds tell it in the bowers. |