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APPENDIX.
And all varieties of things in one; | |
Would set at night in clouds of tears, and rise | |
All light and laughter in the morning; fear | |
No petty customs nor appearances, | |
But think what others only dreamed about; | |
And say what others did but think; and do | |
What others would but say; and glory in | |
What others dared but do; it was these which won me; | |
And that she never schooled within her breast | |
One thought or feeling, but gave holiday | |
To all; and that she told me all her woes | |
And wrongs and ills; and so she made them mine | |
In the communion of love; and we | |
Grew like each other, for we loved each other; | |
She, mild and generous as the sun in spring; | |
And I, like earth, all budding out with love. | |
*** | |
The beautiful are never desolate: | |
For some one alway loves them; God or man; | |
If man abandons, God Himself takes them: | |
And thus it was. She whom I once loved died, | |
The lightning loathes its cloud; the soul its clay. | |
Can I forget that hand I took in mine, | |
Pale as pale violets; that eye, where mind | |
And matter met alike divine? ah, no! | |
May God that moment judge me when I do! | |
Oh! she was fair; her nature once all spring | |
And deadly beauty, like a maiden sword, | |
Startlingly beautiful. I see her now! | |
Wherever thou art thy soul is in my mind; | |
Thy shadow hourly lengthens o'er my brain | |
And peoples all its pictures with thyself; | |
Gone, not forgotten; passed, not lost; thou wilt shine | |
In heaven like a bright spot in the sun! | |
She said she wished to die, and so she died, | |
For, cloudlike, she poured out her love, which was | |
Her life, to freshen this parched heart. It was thus; | |
I said we were to part, but she said nothing; | |
There was no discord; it was music ceased, | |
Life's thrilling, bursting, bounding joy. She sate, | |
Like a house-god, her hands fixed on her knee, | |
And her dark hair lay loose and long behind her, | |
Through which her wild bright eye flashed like a flint; | |
She spake not, moved not, but she looked the more, | |
As if her eye were action, speech, and feeling. |