So much for idle wishing—how
It steals the time! To business now.
"ROUND US THE WILD CREATURES"
Round us the wild creatures, overhead the trees,
Underfoot the moss-tracks—life and love with these!
I to wear a fawn-skin, thou to dress in flowers;
All the long lone summer day, that greenwood life of ours!
Rich-pavilioned, rather—still the world without—5
Inside—gold-roofed, silk-walled silence round about!
Queen it thou on purple—I, at watch and ward,
Couched beneath the columns, gaze, thy slave, love's guard!
So, for us no world? Let throngs press thee to me!
Up and down amid men, heart by heart fare we!10
Welcome squalid vesture, harsh voice, hateful face!
God is soul, souls I and thou; with souls should souls have place.
PROLOGUE TO ASOLANDO
"The Poet's age is sad: for why?
In youth, the natural world could show
No common object but his eye
At once involved with alien glow—
His own soul's iris-bow.5