SONNETS
[QUIET WORK][°]
°[1]One lesson,° Nature, let me learn of thee,
One lesson which in every wind is blown,
One lesson of two duties kept at one
°[4]Though the loud° world proclaim their enmity—
5Of toil unsever'd from tranquillity!
Of labour, that in lasting fruit outgrows
°[7]Far noisier° schemes, accomplish'd in repose,
Too great for haste, too high for rivalry!
Yes, while on earth a thousand discords ring,
10Man's fitful uproar mingling with his toil,
Still do thy sleepless ministers move on,
Their glorious tasks in silence perfecting;
Still working, blaming still our vain turmoil,
Labourers that shall not fail, when man is gone.
[SHAKESPEARE][°]
Others abide our question. Thou art free.
We ask and ask—Thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill,
Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,
[p.116] 5Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,
Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,
Spares but the cloudy border of his base
To the foil'd searching of mortality;
And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know
10Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honour'd, self-secure,
Didst tread on earth unguess'd at.—Better so!
All pains the immortal spirit must endure,
All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow
Find their sole speech in that victorious brow.
[YOUTH'S AGITATIONS][°]
When I shall be divorced, some ten years hence,
From this poor present self which I am now;
When youth has done its tedious vain expense
Of passions that for ever ebb and flow;
°[5]Shall I not joy° youth's heats° are left behind,
°[6]And breathe more happy in an even clime°?—
Ah no, for then I shall begin to find
A thousand virtues in this hated time!
Then I shall wish its agitations back,
10And all its thwarting currents of desire;
Then I shall praise the heat which then I lack,
°[12]And call this hurrying fever,° generous fire;
And sigh that one thing only has been lent
To youth and age in common—discontent.
[p.117]
[AUSTERITY OF POETRY][°]
°[1]That son of Italy° who tried to blow,
°[2]Ere Dante° came, the trump of sacred song,
°[3]In his light youth° amid a festal throng
Sate with his bride to see a public show.
5Fair was the bride, and on her front did glow
Youth like a star; and what to youth belong—
Gay raiment, sparkling gauds, elation strong.
A prop gave way! crash fell a platform! lo,
'Mid struggling sufferers, hurt to death, she lay!
10Shuddering, they drew her garments off—and found
°[11]A robe of sackcloth° next the smooth, white skin.
Such, poets, is your bride, the Muse! young, gay,
Radiant, adorn'd outside; a hidden ground
Of thought and of austerity within.
[WORLDLY PLACE][°]
Even in a palace, life may be led well!
So spake the imperial sage, purest of men,
°[3]Marcus Aurelius.° But the stifling den
Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell,
5Our freedom for a little bread we sell,
°[6]And drudge under some foolish° master's ken.°
[p.118] °[7]Who rates° us if we peer outside our pen—
Match'd with a palace, is not this a hell?
Even in a palace! On his truth sincere,
10Who spoke these words, no shadow ever came;
And when my ill-school'd spirit is aflame
Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win,
I'll stop, and say: "There were no succour here!
The aids to noble life are all within."
[EAST LONDON][°]
'Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead
°[2]Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green,°
And the pale weaver, through his windows seen
°[4]In Spitalfields,° look'd thrice dispirited.
5I met a preacher there I knew, and said:
"Ill and o'erwork'd, how fare you in this scene?"—
"Bravely!" said he; "for I of late have been,
Much cheer'd with thoughts of Christ, the living bread."
O human soul! as long as thou canst so
10Set up a mark of everlasting light,
Above the howling senses' ebb and flow,
To cheer thee, and to right thee if thou roam—
Not with lost toil thou labourest through the night!
Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy home.
[p.119]
[WEST LONDON][°]
°[1]Crouch'd on the pavement, close by Belgrave Square,°
A tramp I saw, ill, moody, and tongue-tied.
A babe was in her arms, and at her side
A girl; their clothes were rags, their feet were bare.
5Some labouring men, whose work lay somewhere there,
Pass'd opposite; she touch'd her girl, who hied
Across and begg'd, and came back satisfied.
The rich she had let pass with frozen stare.
Thought I: "Above her state this spirit towers;
10She will not ask of aliens but of friends,
Of sharers in a common human fate.
"She turns from that cold succour, which attends
The unknown little from the unknowing great,
And points us to a better time than ours."
[p.121]