A jewel sparkling up through the dark sea
Of Sorrow.
Delirium’s world of fantasy and pain,
Where hung the fiery moon and stars of blood
And phantom ships rolled on the rolling flood.
“Isabelle or The Broken Heart” occupies some 40 pages, and is fully as good as “The Child of the Sea”—although in a very different way. There is less elaboration, perhaps, but not less true polish, and even more imagination.
The “Miscellaneous Poems” are, of course, varied in merit. Some of them have been public favorites for a long time. “My Study,” especially, has been often quoted and requoted. It is terse and vigorous. From “The Beleagured Heart” we extract a quatrain of very forcible originality:
I hear the mournful moans of joy—
Hope, sobbing while she cheers—