Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/355

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YET A LITTLE WHILE.
327
Nor seen by mortal eye,
When the third ship crossed the bar
Where whirls and breakers are,
And steered into the splendours of the sky;
That third bark and that least
Which had never seemed to feast,
Yet kept high festival above sun and moon and star.


YET A LITTLE WHILE.
I DREAMED and did not seek: to-day I seek
  Who can no longer dream;
But now am all behindhand, waxen weak,
And dazed amid so many things that gleam
  Yet are not what they seem.

I dreamed and did not work: to-day I work
  Kept wide awake by care
And loss, and perils dimly guessed to lurk;
I work and reap not, while my life goes bare
  And void in wintry air.

I hope indeed but hope itself is fear
  Viewed on the sunny side;
I hope, and disregard the world that's here,
The prizes drawn, the sweet things that betide;
  I hope, and I abide.