Volume Ii Part 94 (2/2)
Nor yours, nor mine--nor slave nor free!
Where does the fault lie? What the core Of the wound, since wound must be?
I would I could adopt your will, See with your eyes, and set my heart Beating by yours, and drink my fill At your soul's springs,--your part, my part In life, for good and ill.
No. I yearn upward, touch you close, Then stand away. I kiss your cheek, Catch your soul's warmth,--I pluck the rose And love it more than tongue can speak-- Then the good minute goes.
Already how am I so far Out of that minute? Must I go Still like the thistle-ball, no bar, Onward, whenever light winds blow, Fixed by no friendly star?
Just when I seemed about to learn!
Where is the thread now? Off again!
The old trick! Only I discern-- Infinite pa.s.sion, and the pain Of finite hearts that yearn.
Robert Browning [1812-1889]
ONE WAY OF LOVE
All June I bound the rose in sheaves.
Now, rose by rose, I strip the leaves And strew them where Pauline may pa.s.s.
She will not turn aside? Alas!
Let them lie. Suppose they die?
The chance was they might take her eye.
How many a month I strove to suit These stubborn fingers to the lute!
To-day I venture all I know.
She will not hear my music? So!
Break the string; fold music's wing: Suppose Pauline had bade me sing!
My whole life long I learned to love.
This hour my utmost art I prove And speak my pa.s.sion--heaven or h.e.l.l?
She will not give me heaven? 'Tis well!
Lose who may--I still can say, Those who win heaven, blest are they!
Robert Browning [1812-1889]
”NEVER THE TIME AND THE PLACE”
Never the time and the place And the loved one all together!
This path--how soft to pace!
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