“We play at paste
Till qualified for pearl;
Then drop the paste
And deem ourself a fool.
“The shapes, though, were similar
And our new hands
Learned gem-tactics,
Practicing sands.”
Then came one which I have always classed among the most exquisite of her productions, with a singular felicity of phrase and an aerial lift that bears the ear upward with the bee it traces:—
“The nearest dream recedes unrealized.