Page:Genius, and other essays.djvu/271

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JULIA WARD HOWE

raised, by higher thought, to higher art, and more nearly achieves success. "Philosophy and First Causes," and "The Christ" will repay any one's reading. "The Church" is in harmony with the free and catholic spirit of its author. Our attention is next caught by a little madrigal, called "The Evening Ride," which we quote as having musical quality, and being, therefore, one of the few pieces that can justly come under the title of this book:

Through purple clouds with golden crests
I go to find my lover;
Hid from my sight this many a year,
My heart must him discover:
I know the lair of the timid hare,
The nest of the startled plover.

O earth! of all thy garlands, keep
The fairest for our meeting;
Could we ask music, 'twere to drown
The heart's tumultuous beating,
That only eyes, in glad surprise,
Might look through tears their greeting.

If Time have writ my beauty out,
I have no charm to bind him;
No snare to catch his doubting soul,
Nor vow exchanged to bind him;
But this I keep, that I must weep
Bitterly when I find him.

The reader will also admire "Simple Tales," "Fame and Friendship," "Meditation," "The House of Rest," and other thoughtful poems. "The Unwel-

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