CX. HIGH wisdom holds my wisdom less, That I, who gaze with temperate eyes On glorious insufficiencies, Set light by narrower perfectness. But thou, that fillest all the room Of all my love, art reason why I seem to cast a careless eye On souls, the lesser lords of doom. For what wert thou? some novel power Sprang up for ever at a touch, And hope could never hope too much, In watching thee from hour to hour, Large elements in order brought, And tracts of calm from tempest made, In vassal tides that followed thought. CXI. 'TIS held that sorrow makes us wise; For can I doubt who knew thee keen In intellect, with force and skill To strive, to fashion, to fulfil— I doubt not what thou wouldst have been : A life in civic action warm, A soul on highest mission sent, A pillar steadfast in the storm, Should licensed boldness gather force, And roll it in another course, 175 many shocks that come and go, With agonies, with energies, With overthrowings, and with cries, undulations to and fro. Who sl Against her beauty? May she But on her forehead sits a fire: She sets her forward countenanc And leaps into the future chance Submitting all things to desire. Half-grown as yet, a child, and vainShe cannot fight the fear of death What is she, cut from love and fai But some wild Pallas from the brain Of Demons? fiery-hot to burst All barriers in her onward race For power. Let her know her pla She is the second, not the first. A higher hand must make her mild, For she is earthly of the mind, But wisdom heavenly of the soul. So early, leaving me behind, I would the great world grew like thee, And knowledge, but from hour to hour In reverence and in charity. N |