Aurora Leigh: Book Fourth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST KUTVWTXY ZA2B2C2D2E2F2G2H2I2J 2K2L2F2M2N2 O2ATK2P2QQ2Q2TQ2R2S2 T2K2 U2J2V2W2SX2Y2YZ2IA3B 3J2Y2C3A2WY2 V2D3YE3F3G3H3VI3Z2J3 E2NK3NQ2L3M3UN2KJ2U2 B2I2J3 N3O3Z2P3YQ3G R3YB2S3T3U3V3W3Y X3Y3TZ3 A4I3B4X2S2C4SED4E4F4 G4 F2SCH4I4J4W3K4L4M4N4 O4J3P4Q4R4S4T4U3 U4B2V4JZ3NW4X4Y4Z4PU 2B3EV2 N4A3 PZ2R3C2 YR3M4EB2F4H4P2R3Z2PA 4B3SA4 F2Q2J3C2YL3SR3O3YYI3 V Y4R2 QB3PN2YC2YI3Y3B2SW3Q 2NKXB2H4E2L2YE2Z2KE2 E2Q2E2E2L3E2TRY A4NY E2 A4Y P3 YA4E2WJ3E2A4 U3A4 J2X3R3Y4R3E2E2 QE2U2E2E2E2E2 E2A4U2E2E2E2TYTZ3 A4A4U2PE2E2E2E2A2E2E 2A4A4E2C E2KCA4E2SS E2KYE2YA4 U2C2E2E2E2E2U2E2E2E2 YE2A4 A4E2E2E2A4E2E2PE2E2V A4E2SYA4E2A4 A4E2Y A4F4SE2E2E2A4E2SWE2I 2E2E2E2E2 A4Y4A4 SE2E2E2E2 I4E2E2E2E2PE2E2A4PE2 E2YE2PA4 YA4E2 C2J2Z3TE2E2A4E2E2E2E 2R3Y KS E2E2E2TE2TA4A4E2SE2E 2E2E2TE2I2E2YTE2E2E2 K2PKE2YE2PE2 E2VE2 WYA4 TSA4SA4A4E2E2E2YR3TT E2A4E2TYE2 E2 A4E2YTA4A4E2A4YTE2YE 2 Y4 R3E2 T E2TE2R3R3 Y Y4 Y YA4 Y4R3R3E2TE2A4SA4R3Y4 A4R3TSE2R3E2E2R3E2A4 Y4 TE2A4E2E2YE2E2R3 R3 E2A4TY4E2A4YE2E2R3E2 E2A4T3E2E2E2TE2E2A4T E2 TE2A4E2 E2TR3SPA4TA4R3A4E2A4 R3 R3A4A4E2PT TE2TTPE2E2E2SA4TR3E2 YA4E2E2R3R3T Y4A4E2TE2 SY4 R3E2Y E2A4E2TT YE2A4YYTTE2A4VY E2E2E2E2R3 A4E2 R3R3E2E2E2 R3 R3 R3T E2E2E2E2Y PR3YE2E2 Y4 E2E2YYYPYTYR3YR3TYA4 TYYA4YA4YA4YYYYA4 A4 Y PTYA4TYY YYT YYE2TR3YR3YYYY A4YYSA4P YTR3Y R3E2YYYYR3YR3 TA4 YYYYYR3YYYA4Y R3 PYYA4YYR3 YYYA4YYYYY A4A4PYYYYYYYYR3Y TYVA4Y YE2R3R3YR3R3R3

They met still sooner 'Twas a year from thence	A
That Lucy Gresham the sick sempstress girl	B
Who sewed by Marian's chair so still and quick	C
And leant her head upon its back to cough	D
More freely when the mistress turning round	E
The others took occasion to laugh out	F
Gave up at last Among the workers spoke	G
A bold girl with black eyebrows and red lips	H
You know the news Who's dying do you think	I
Our Lucy Gresham I expected it	J
As little as Nell Hart's wedding Blush not Nell	K
Thy curls be red enough without thy cheeks	L
And some day there'll be found a man to dote	M
On red curls Lucy Gresham swooned last night	N
Dropped sudden in the street while going home	O
And now the baker says who took her up	P
And laid her by her grandmother in bed	Q
He'll give her a week to die in Pass the silk	R
Let's hope he gave her a loaf too within reach	S
For otherwise they'll starve before they die	T
That funny pair of bedfellows Miss Bell	K
I'll thank you for the scissors The old crone	U
Is paralytic that's the reason why	T
Our Lucy's thread went faster than her breath	V
Which went too quick we all know Marian Erle	W
Why Marian Erle you're not the fool to cry	T
Your tears spoil Lady Waldemar's new dress	X
You piece of pity	Y
	-
	-
Marian rose up straight	Z
And breaking through the talk and through the work	A2
Went outward in the face of their surprise	B2
To Lucy's home to nurse her back to life	C2
Or down to death She knew by such an act	D2
All place and grace were forfeit in the house	E2
Whose mistress would supply the missing hand	F2
With necessary not inhuman haste	G2
And take no blame But pity too had dues	H2
She could not leave a solitary soul	I2
To founder in the dark while she sat still	J2
And lavished stitches on a lady's hem	K2
As if no other work were paramount	L2
Why God thought Marian has a missing hand	F2
This moment Lucy wants a drink perhaps	M2
Let others miss me never miss me God	N2
	-
	-
So Marian sat by Lucy's bed content	O2
With duty and was strong for recompense	A
To hold the lamp of human love arm high	T
To catch the death strained eyes and comfort them	K2
Until the angels on the luminous side	P2
Of death had got theirs ready And she said	Q
If Lucy thanked her sometimes called her kind	Q2
It touched her strangely Marian Erle called kind	Q2
What Marian beaten and sold who could not die	T
'Tis verily good fortune to be kind	Q2
Ah you she said who are born to such a grace	R2
Be sorry for the unlicensed class the poor	S2
Reduced to think the best good fortune means	T2
That others simply should be kind to them	K2
	-
	-
From sleep to sleep when Lucy had slid away	U2
So gently like the light upon a hill	J2
Of which none names the moment that it goes	V2
Though all see when 'tis gone a man came in	W2
And stood beside the bed The old idiot wretch	S
Screamed feebly like a baby overlain	X2
Sir sir you won't mistake me for the corpse	Y2
Don't look at me sir never bury me	Y
Although I lie here I'm alive as you	Z2
Except my legs and arms I eat and drink	I
And understand that you're the gentleman	A3
Who fits the funerals up Heaven speed you sir	B3
And certainly I should be livelier still	J2
If Lucy here sir Lucy is the corpse	Y2
Had worked more properly to buy me wine	C3
But Lucy sir was always slow at work	A2
I shan't lose much by Lucy Marian Erle	W
Speak up and show the gentleman the corpse	Y2
	-
	-
And then a voice said Marian Erle She rose	V2
It was the hour for angels there stood hers	D3
She scarcely marvelled to see Romney Leigh	Y
As light November snows to empty nests	E3
As grass to graves as moss to mildewed stones	F3
As July suns to ruins through the rents	G3
As ministering spirits to mourners through a loss	H3
As Heaven itself to men through pangs of death	V
He came uncalled wherever grief had come	I3
And so said Marian Erle we met anew	Z2
And added softly so we shall not part	J3
	-
	-
He was not angry that she had left the house	E2
Wherein he placed her Well she had feared it might	N
Have vexed him Also when he found her set	K3
On keeping though the dead was out of sight	N
That half dead half alive body left behind	Q2
With cankerous heart and flesh which took your best	L3
And cursed you for the little good it did	M3
Could any leave the bed rid wretch alone	U
So joyless she was thankless even to God	N2
Much more to you he did not say 'twas well	K
Yet Marian thought he did not take it ill	J2
Since day by day he came and every day	U2
She felt within his utterance and his eyes	B2
A closer tenderer presence of the soul	I2
Until at last he said We shall not part	J3
	-
	-
On that same day was Marian's work complete	N3
She had smoothed the empty bed and swept the floor	O3
Of coffin sawdust set the chairs anew	Z2
The dead had ended gossip in and stood	P3
In that poor room so cold and orderly	Y
The door key in her hand prepared to go	Q3
As they had howbeit not their way He spoke	G
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	-
Dear Marian of one clay God made us all	R3
And though men push and poke and paddle in't	Y
As children play at fashioning dirt pies	B2
And call their fancies by the name of facts	S3
Assuming difference lordship privilege	T3
When all's plain dirt they come back to it at last	U3
The first grave digger proves it with a spade	V3
And pats all even Need we wait for this	W3
You Marian and I Romney	Y
	-
	-
She at that	X3
Looked blindly in his face as when one looks	Y3
Through driving autumn rains to find the sky	T
He went on speaking	Z3
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	-
Marian I being born	A4
What men call noble and you issued from	I3
The noble people though the tyrannous sword	B4
Which pierced Christ's heart has cleft the world in twain	X2
'Twixt class and class opposing rich to poor	S2
Shall we keep parted Not so Let us lean	C4
And strain together rather each to each	S
Compress the red lips of this gaping wound	E
As far as two souls can ay lean and league	D4
I from my superabundance from your want	E4
You joining in a protest 'gainst the wrong	F4
On both sides	G4
	-
	-
All the rest he held her hand	F2
In speaking which confused the sense of much	S
Her heart against his words beat out so thick	C
They might as well be written on the dust	H4
Where some poor bird escaping from hawk's beak	I4
Has dropped and beats its shuddering wings the lines	J4
Are rubbed so yet 'twas something like to this	W3
That they two standing at the two extremes	K4
Of social classes had received one seal	L4
Been dedicate and drawn beyond themselves	M4
To mercy and ministration he indeed	N4
Through what he knew and she through what she felt	O4
He by man's conscience she by woman's heart	J3
Relinquishing their several 'vantage posts	P4
Of wealthy ease and honourable toil	Q4
To work with God at love And since God willed	R4
That putting out his hand to touch this ark	S4
He found a woman's hand there he'd accept	T4
The sign too hold the tender fingers fast	U3
And say 'My fellow worker be my wife '	-
	-
	-
She told the tale with simple rustic turns	U4
Strong leaps of meaning in her sudden eyes	B2
That took the gaps of any imperfect phrase	V4
Of the unschooled speaker I have rather writ	J
The thing I understood so than the thing	Z3
I heard so And I cannot render right	N
Her quick gesticulation wild yet soft	W4
Self startled from the habitual mood she used	X4
Half sad half languid like dumb creatures now	Y4
A rustling bird and now a wandering deer	Z4
Or squirrel 'gainst the oak gloom flashing up	P
His sidelong burnished head in just her way	U2
Of savage spontaneity that stir	B3
Abruptly the green silence of the woods
And make it stranger holier more profound	E
As Nature's general heart confessed itself
Of life and then fell backward on repose	V2
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I kissed the lips that ended So indeed	N4
He loves you Marian	A3
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	-
Loves me She looked up	P
With a child's wonder when you ask him first
Who made the sun a puzzled blush that grew	Z2
Then broke off in a rapid radiant smile
Of sure solution Loves me he loves all	R3
And me of course He had not asked me else
To work with him for ever and be his wife	C2
	-
	-
Her words reproved me This perhaps was love
To have its hands too full of gifts to give
For putting out a hand to take a gift
To love so much the perfect round of love
Includes in strict conclusion being loved
As Eden dew went up and fell again
Enough for watering Eden Obviously	Y
She had not thought about his love at all	R3
The cataracts of her soul had poured themselves	M4
And risen self crowned in rainbow would she ask
Who crowned her it sufficed that she was crowned	E
With women of my class 'tis otherwise	B2
We haggle for the small change of our gold
And so much love accord for so much love
Rialto prices Are we therefore wrong	F4
If marriage be a contract look to it then
Contracting parties should be equal just	H4
But if a simple fealty on one side	P2
A mere religion right to give is all	R3
And certain brides of Europe duly ask
To mount the pile as Indian widows do	Z2
The spices of their tender youth heaped up	P
The jewels of their gracious virtues worn	A4
More gems more glory to consume entire	B3
For a living husband as the man's alive
Not dead the woman's duty by so much	S
Advanced in England beyond Hindostan	A4
	-
	-
I sat there musing till she touched my hand	F2
With hers as softly as a strange white bird
She feared to startle in touching You are kind	Q2
But are you peradventure vexed at heart	J3
Because your cousin takes me for a wife	C2
I know I am not worthy nay in truth
I'm glad on't since for that he chooses me	Y
He likes the poor things of the world the best	L3
I would not therefore if I could be rich	S
It pleasures him to stoop for buttercups
I would not be a rose upon the wall	R3
A queen might stop at near the palace door	O3
To say to a courtier 'Pluck that rose for me	Y
'It's prettier than the rest ' O Romney Leigh	Y
I'd rather far be trodden by his foot
Than lie in a great queen's bosom	I3
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	-
Out of breath	V
She paused
	-
	-
Sweet Marian do you disavow	Y4
The roses with that face	R2
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	-
She dropped her head	Q
As if the wind had caught that flower of her	B3
And bent it in the garden then looked up	P
With grave assurance Well you think me bold
But so we all are when we're praying God	N2
And if I'm bold yet lady credit me	Y
That since I know myself for what I am
Much fitter for his handmaid than his wife	C2
I'll prove the handmaid and the wife at once
Serve tenderly and love obediently	Y
And be a worthier mate perhaps than some	I3
Who are wooed in silk among their learned books	Y3
While I shall set myself to read his eyes	B2
Till such grow plainer to me than the French	S
To wisest ladies Do you think I'll miss	W3
A letter in the spelling of his mind	Q2
No more than they do when they sit and write	N
Their flying words with flickering wild fowl tails
Nor ever pause to ask how many t's
Should that be y or i they know't so well	K
I've seen them writing when I brought a dress	X
And waited floating out their soft white hands
On shining paper But they're hard sometimes
For all those hands we've used out many nights
And worn the yellow daylight into shreds
Which flapped and shivered down our aching eyes	B2
Till night appeared more tolerable just	H4
That pretty ladies might look beautiful
Who said at last 'You're lazy in that house	E2
'You're slow in sending home the work I count	L2
'I've waited near an hour for't ' Pardon me	Y
I do not blame them madam nor misprize	E2
They are fair and gracious ay but not like you	Z2
Since none but you has Mister Leigh's own blood
Both noble and gentle and without it well	K
They are fair I said so fair it scarce seems strange
That flashing out in any looking glass	E2
The wonder of their glorious brows and breasts	E2
They're charmed so they forget to look behind	Q2
And mark how pale we've grown we pitiful
Remainders of the world And so perhaps	E2
If Mister Leigh had chosen a wife from these	E2
She might although he's better than her best	L3
And dearly she would know it steal a thought
Which should be all his an eye glance from his face	E2
To plunge into the mirror opposite
In search of her own beauty's pearl while I	T
Ah dearest lady serge will outweigh silk	R
For winter wear when bodies feel a cold
And I'll be a true wife to your cousin Leigh	Y
	-
	-
Before I answered he was there himself
I think he had been standing in the room
And listened probably to half her talk
Arrested turned to stone as white as stone	A4
Will tender sayings make men look so white	N
He loves her then profoundly	Y
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	-
You are here
Aurora Here I meet you We clasped hands	E2
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	-
Even so dear Romney Lady Waldemar
Has sent me in haste to find a cousin of mine	A4
Who shall be	Y
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	-
Lady Waldemar is good	P3
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	-
Here's one at least who is good I sighed and touched
Poor Marian's happy head as doglike she	Y
Most passionately patient waited on	A4
A tremble for her turn of greeting words	E2
I've sat a full hour with your Marian Erle	W
And learnt the thing by heart and from my heart	J3
Am therefore competent to give you thanks	E2
For such a cousin	A4
	-
	-
You accept at last	U3
A gift from me Aurora without scorn	A4
At last I please you How his voice was changed
	-
	-
You cannot please a woman against her will	J2
And once you vexed me Shall we speak of that	X3
We'll say then you were noble in it all	R3
And I not ignorant let it pass And now	Y4
You please me Romney when you please yourself
So please you be fanatical in love
And I'm well pleased Ah cousin at the old hall	R3
Among the gallery portraits of our Leighs	E2
We shall not find a sweeter signory
Than this pure forehead's	E2
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	-
Not a word he said	Q
How arrogant men are Even philanthropists	E2
Who try to take a wife up in the way	U2
They put down a subscription cheque if once	E2
She turns and says I will not tax you so	E2
Most charitable sir feel ill at ease	E2
As though she had wronged them somehow I suppose	E2
We women should remember what we are
And not throw back an obolus inscribed
With C sar's image lightly I resumed
	-
	-
It strikes me some of those sublime Vandykes	E2
Were not too proud to make good saints in heaven	A4
And if so then they're not too proud to day	U2
To bow down now the ruffs are off their necks	E2
And own this good true noble Marian yours	E2
And mine I'll say For poets bear the word
Half poets even are still whole democrats	E2
Oh not that we're disloyal to the high	T
But loyal to the low and cognisant
Of the less scrutable majesties For me	Y
I comprehend your choice I justify	T
Your right in choosing	Z3
	-
	-
No no no he sighed
With a sort of melancholy impatient scorn	A4
As some grown man who never had a child
Puts by some child who plays at being a man	A4
You did not do not cannot comprehend
My choice my ends my motives nor myself
No matter now we'll let it pass you say	U2
I thank you for your generous cousinship	P
Which helps this present I accept for her
Your favourable thoughts We're fallen on days	E2
We two who are not poets when to wed
Requires less mutual love than common love
For two together to bear out at once	E2
Upon the loveless many Work in pairs	E2
In galley couplings or in marriage rings	E2
The difference lies in the honour not the work	A2
And such we're bound to I and she But love
You poets are benighted in this age
The hour's too late for catching even moths	E2
You've gnats instead love love's fool paradise	E2
Is out of date like Adam's Set a swan	A4
To swim the Trenton rather than true love
To float its fabulous plumage safely down	A4
The cataracts of this loud transition time
Whose roar for ever henceforth in my ears	E2
Must keep me deaf to music	C
	-
	-
There I turned
And kissed poor Marian out of discontent
The man had baffled chafed me till I flung
For refuge to the woman as sometimes	E2
Impatient of some crowded room's close smell	K
You throw a window open and lean out
To breathe a long breath in the dewy night
And cool your angry forehead She at least
Was not built up as walls are brick by brick	C
Each fancy squared each feeling ranged by line	A4
The very heat of burning youth applied
To indurate form and system excellent bricks	E2
A well built wall which stops you on the road
And into which you cannot see an inch	S
Although you beat your head against it pshaw	S
	-
	-
Adieu I said for this time cousins both
And cousin Romney pardon me the word
Be happy oh in some esoteric sense	E2
Of course I mean no harm in wishing well	K
Adieu my Marian may she come to me	Y
Dear Romney and be married from my house	E2
It is not part of your philosophy	Y
To keep your bird upon the blackthorn	A4
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	-
Ay	U2
He answered but it is I take my wife	C2
Directly from the people and she comes	E2
As Austria's daughter to imperial France	E2
Betwixt her eagles blinking not her race	E2
From Margaret's Court at garret height to meet
And wed me at Saint James's nor put off
Her gown of serge for that The things we do
We do we'll wear no mask as if we blushed
Dear Romney you're the poet I replied
But felt my smile too mournful for my word
And turned and went Ay masks I thought beware
Of tragic masks we tie before the glass	E2
Uplifted on the cothurn half a yard
Above the natural stature we would play	U2
Heroic parts to ourselves and end perhaps	E2
As impotently as Athenian wives	E2
Who shrieked in fits at the Eumenides	E2
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	-
His foot pursued me down the stair At least
You'll suffer me to walk with you beyond
These hideous streets these graves where men alive
Packed close with earthworms burr unconsciously	Y
About the plague that slew them let me go	E2
The very women pelt their souls in mud
At any woman who walks here alone	A4
How came you here alone you are ignorant
	-
	-
We had a strange and melancholy walk
The night came drizzling downward in dark rain	A4
And as we walked the colour of the time
The act the presence my hand upon his arm
His voice in my ear and mine to my own sense	E2
Appeared unnatural We talked modern books	E2
And daily papers Spanish marriage schemes	E2
And English climate was't so cold last year
And will the wind change by to morrow morn	A4
Can Guizot stand is London full is trade
Competitive has Dickens turned his hinge
A pinch upon the fingers of the great
And are potatoes to grow mythical
Like moly will the apple die out too
Which way is the wind to night south east due east
We talked on fast while every common word
Seemed tangled with the thunder at one end
And ready to pull down upon our heads	E2
A terror out of sight And yet to pause	E2
Were surelier mortal we tore greedily up	P
All silence all the innocent breathing points	E2
As if like pale conspirators in haste
We tore up papers where our signatures	E2
Imperilled us to an ugly shame or death	V
	-
	-
I cannot tell you why it was 'Tis plain	A4
We had not loved nor hated wherefore dread
To spill gunpowder on ground safe from fire
Perhaps we had lived too closely to diverge
So absolutely leave two clocks they say	E2
Wound up to different hours upon one shelf
And slowly through the interior wheels of each	S
The blind mechanic motion sets itself
A throb to feel out for the mutual time
It was not so with us indeed while he	Y
Struck midnight I kept striking six at dawn	A4
While he marked judgment I redemption day	E2
And such exception to a general law
Imperious upon inert matter even	A4
Might make us each to either insecure
A beckoning mystery or a troubling fear
	-
	-
I mind me when we parted at the door
How strange his good night sounded like good night
Beside a deathbed where the morrow's sun	A4
Is sure to come too late for more good days	E2
And all that night I thought Goodnight said he	Y
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	-
And so a month passed Let me set it down	A4
At once I have been wrong I have been wrong	F4
We are wrong always when we think too much	S
Of what we think or are albeit our thoughts	E2
Be verily bitter as self sacrifice	E2
We're no less selfish If we sleep on rocks	E2
Or roses sleeping past the hour of noon	A4
We're lazy This I write against myself
I had done a duty in the visit paid
To Marian and was ready otherwise	E2
To give the witness of my presence and name
Whenever she should marry Which I thought
Sufficed I even had cast into the scale
An overweight of justice toward the match	S
The Lady Waldemar had missed her tool
Had broken it in the lock as being too straight
For a crooked purpose while poor Marian Erle	W
Missed nothing in my accents or my acts	E2
I had not been ungenerous on the whole	I2
Nor yet untender so enough I felt
Tired overworked this marriage somewhat jarred
Or if it did not all the bridal noise	E2
The pricking of the map of life with pins	E2
In schemes of Here we'll go and There we'll stay	E2
And Everywhere we'll prosper in our love
Was scarce my business let them order it
Who else should care I threw myself aside
As one who had done her work and shuts her eyes	E2
To rest the better
	-
	-
I who should have known	A4
Forereckoned mischief Where we disavow	Y4
Being keeper to our brother we're his Cain	A4
	-
	-
I might have held that poor child to my heart
A little longer 'twould have hurt me much	S
To have hastened by its beats the marriage day	E2
And kept her safe meantime from tampering hands	E2
Or peradventure traps What drew me back
From telling Romney plainly the designs	E2
Of Lady Waldemar as spoken out
To me me Had I any right ay right
With womanly compassion and reserve
To break the fall of woman's impudence	E2
To stand by calmly knowing what I knew
And hear him call her good
	-
	-
Distrust that word
There is none good save God said Jesus Christ
If He once in the first creation week	I4
Called creatures good for ever afterward
The Devil only has done it and his heirs	E2
The knaves who win so and the fools who lose	E2
The word's grown dangerous In the middle age
I think they called malignant fays and imps	E2
Good people A good neighbour even in this	E2
Is fatal sometimes cuts your morning up	P
To mincemeat of the very smallest talk
Then helps to sugar her bohea at night
With your reputation I have known good wives	E2
As chaste or nearly so as Potiphar's	E2
And good good mothers who would use a child
To better an intrigue good friends beside
Very good who hung succinctly round your neck
And sucked your breath as cats are fabled to do
By sleeping infants And we all have known	A4
Good critics who have stamped out poet's hope	P
Good statesmen who pulled ruin on the state
Good patriots who for a theory risked a cause	E2
Good kings who disembowelled for a tax	E2
Good popes who brought all good to jeopardy	Y
Good Christians who sat still in easy chairs	E2
And damned the general world for standing up	P
Now may the good God pardon all good men	A4
	-
	-
How bitterly I speak how certainly	Y
The innocent white milk in us is turned
By much persistent shining of the sun	A4
Shake up the sweetest in us long enough
With men it drops to foolish curd too sour
To feed the most untender of Christ's lambs	E2
	-
	-
I should have thought a woman of the world
Like her I'm meaning centre to herself
Who has wheeled on her own pivot half a life	C2
In isolated self love and self will	J2
As a windmill seen at distance radiating	Z3
Its delicate white vans against the sky	T
So soft and soundless simply beautiful
Seen nearer what a roar and tear it makes	E2
How it grinds and bruises if she loves at last
Her love's a re adjustment of self love
No more a need felt of another's use	E2
To her one advantage as the mill wants grain	A4
The fire wants fuel the very wolf wants prey	E2
And none of these is more unscrupulous	E2
Than such a charming woman when she loves	E2
She'll not be thwarted by an obstacle
So trifling as her soul is much less yours	E2
Is God a consideration she loves you
Not God she will not flinch for Him indeed
She did not for the Marchioness of Perth
When wanting tickets for the fancy ball	R3
She loves you sir with passion to lunacy	Y
She loves you like her diamonds almost
	-
	-
Well	K
A month passed so and then the notice came
On such a day the marriage at the church	S
I was not backward
	-
	-
Half Saint Giles in frieze	E2
Was bidden to meet Saint James in cloth of gold
And after contract at the altar pass	E2
To eat a marriage feast on Hampstead Heath
Of course the people came in uncompelled
Lame blind and worse sick sorrowful and worse	E2
The humours of the peccant social wound
All pressed out poured down upon Pimlico	T
Exasperating the unaccustomed air
With a hideous interfusion You'd suppose	E2
A finished generation dead of plague	T
Swept outward from their graves into the sun	A4
The moil of death upon them What a sight
A holiday of miserable men	A4
Is sadder than a burial day of kings	E2
They clogged the streets they oozed into the church	S
In a dark slow stream like blood To see that sight
The noble ladies stood up in their pews	E2
Some pale for fear a few as red for hate
Some simply curious some just insolent
And some in wondering scorn What next what next
These crushed their delicate rose lips from the smile
That misbecame them in a holy place	E2
With broidered hems of perfumed handkerchiefs	E2
Those passed the salts with confidence of eyes	E2
And simultaneous shiver of moir silk	T
While all the aisles alive and black with heads	E2
Crawled slowly toward the altar from the street
As bruised snakes crawl and hiss out of a hole	I2
With shuddering involution swaying slow	E2
From right to left and then from left to right
In pants and pauses What an ugly crest
Of faces rose upon you everywhere
From that crammed mass you did not usually	Y
See faces like them in the open day
They hide in cellars not to make you mad
As Romney Leigh is Faces O my God
We call those faces men's and women's ay
And children's babies hanging like a rag	T
Forgotten on their mother's neck poor mouths	E2
Wiped clean of mother's milk by mother's blow	E2
Before they are taught her cursing Faces phew
We'll call them vices festering to despairs	E2
Or sorrows petrifying to vices not
A finger touch of God left whole on them	K2
All ruined lost the countenance worn out
As the garment the will dissolute as the act
The passions loose and draggling in the dirt
To trip a foot up at the first free step	P
Those faces 'twas as if you had stirred up hell	K
To heave its lowest dreg fiends uppermost
In fiery swirls of slime such strangled fronts	E2
Such obdurate jaws were thrown up constantly	Y
To twit you with your race corrupt your blood
And grind to devilish colours all your dreams	E2
Henceforth though haply you should drop asleep	P
By clink of silver waters in a muse	E2
On Raffael's mild Madonna of the Bird
	-
	-
I've waked and slept through many nights and days	E2
Since then but still that day will catch my breath	V
Like a nightmare There are fatal days indeed
In which the fibrous years have taken root
So deeply that they quiver to their tops	E2
Whene'er you stir the dust of such a day
	-
	-
My cousin met me with his eyes and hand
And then with just a word that Marian Erle	W
Was coming with her bridesmaids presently	Y
Made haste to place me by the altar stair
Where he and other noble gentlemen	A4
And high born ladies waited for the bride
	-
	-
We waited It was early there was time
For greeting and the morning's compliment
And gradually a ripple of women's talk	T
Arose and fell and tossed about a spray
Of English s's soft as a silent hush	S
And notwithstanding quite as audible
As louder phrases thrown out by the men	A4
Yes really if we need to wait in church	S
We need to talk there She 'tis Lady Ayr
In blue not purple that's the dowager
She looks as young She flirts as young you mean	A4
Why if you had seen her upon Thursday night
You'd call Miss Norris modest You again	A4
I waltzed with you three hours back Up at six	E2
Up still at ten scarce time to change one's shoes	E2
I feel as white and sulky as a ghost
So pray don't speak to me Lord Belcher No	E2
I'll look at you instead and it's enough
While you have that face In church my lord fie fie
Adair you stayed for the Division Lost
By one The devil it is I'm sorry for't	Y
And if I had not promised Mistress Grove
You might have kept your word to Liverpool
Constituents must remember after all	R3
We're mortal We remind them of it Hark	T
The bride comes here she comes in a stream of milk	T
There Dear you are asleep still don't you know	E2
The five Miss Granvilles always dressed in white
To show they're ready to be married Lower
The aunt is at your elbow Lady Maud
Did Lady Waldemar tell you she had seen	A4
This girl of Leigh's No wait 'twas Mistress Brookes	E2
Who told me Lady Waldemar told her
No 'twasn't Mistress Brookes She's pretty Who
Mistress Brookes Lady Waldemar How hot
Pray is't the law to day we're not to breathe
You're treading on my shawl I thank you sir
They say the bride's a mere child who can't read
But knows the things she shouldn't with wide awake	T
Great eyes I'd go through fire to look at her
You do I think And Lady Waldemar
You see her sitting close to Romney Leigh	Y
How beautiful she looks a little flushed
Has taken up the girl and methodised
Leigh's folly Should I have come here you suppose	E2
Except she'd asked me She'd have served him more
By marrying him herself
	-
	-
Ah there she comes	E2
The bride at last
	-
	-
Indeed no Past eleven	A4
She puts off her patched petticoat to day
And puts on Mayfair manners so begins	E2
By setting us to wait Yes yes this Leigh	Y
Was always odd it's in the blood I think	T
His father's uncle's cousin's second son	A4
Was was you understand me and for him
He's stark has turned quite lunatic upon	A4
This modern question of the poor the poor
An excellent subject when you're moderate
You've seen Prince Albert's model lodging house	E2
Does honour to his Royal Highness Good
But would he stop his carriage in Cheapside
To shake a common fellow by the fist
Whose name was Shakespeare No We draw a line	A4
And if we stand not by our order we	Y
In England we fall headlong Here's a sight
A hideous sight a most indecent sight
My wife would come sir or I had kept her back	T
By heaven sir when poor Damiens' trunk and limbs	E2
Were torn by horses women of the court
Stood by and stared exactly as to day
On this dismembering of society	Y
With pretty troubled faces	E2
	-
	-
Now at last
She comes now	Y4
	-
	-
Where who sees you push me sir
Beyond the point of what is mannerly	R3
You're standing madam on my second flounce	E2
I do beseech you
	-
	-
No it's not the bride
Half past eleven How late The bride groom mark	T
Gets anxious and goes out
	-
	-
And as I said
These Leighs our best blood running in the rut
It's something awful We had pardoned him
A simple misalliance got up aside
For a pair of sky blue eyes the House of Lords	E2
Has winked at such things and we've all been young	T
But here's an intermarriage reasoned out
A contract carried boldly to the light
To challenge observation pioneer
Good acts by a great example 'twixt the extremes	E2
Of martyrised society on the left
The well born on the right the merest mob
To treat as equals 'tis anarchical	R3
It means more than it says 'tis damnable	R3
Why sir we can't have even our coffee good
Unless we strain it
	-
	-
Here Miss Leigh	Y
	-
	-
Lord Howe	Y4
You're Romney's friend What's all this waiting for
	-
	-
I cannot tell The bride has lost her head
And way perhaps to prove her sympathy	Y
With the bridegroom
	-
	-
What you also disapprove
	-
	-
Oh I approve of nothing in the world
He answered not of you still less of me	Y
Nor even of Romney though he's worth us both
We're all gone wrong The tune in us is lost
And whistling down back alleys to the moon	A4
Will never catch it
	-
	-
Let me draw Lord Howe	Y4
A born aristocrat bred radical	R3
And educated socialist who still	R3
Goes floating on traditions of his kind
Across the theoretic flood from France	E2
Though like a drenched Noah on a rotten deck	T
Scarce safer for his place there He at least
Will never land on Ararat he knows	E2
To recommence the world on the new plan	A4
Indeed he thinks said world had better end
He sympathises rather with the fish	S
Outside than with the drowned paired beasts within	A4
Who cannot couple again or multiply	R3
And that's the sort of Noah he is Lord Howe	Y4
He never could be anything complete
Except a loyal upright gentleman	A4
A liberal landlord graceful diner out
And entertainer more than hospitable	R3
Whom authors dine with and forget the hock	T
Whatever he believes and it is much	S
But nowise certain now here and now there
He still has sympathies beyond his creed
Diverting him from action In the House	E2
No party counts upon him while for all	R3
His speeches have a noticeable weight
Men like his books too he has written books	E2
Which safe to lie beside a bishop's chair
At times outreach themselves with jets of fire
At which the foremost of the progressists	E2
May warm audacious hands in passing by	R3
Of stature over tall lounging for ease	E2
Light hair that seems to carry a wind in it
And eyes that when they look on you will lean	A4
Their whole weight half in indolence and half
In wishing you unmitigated good
Until you know not if to flinch from him
Or thank him 'Tis Lord Howe	Y4
	-
	-
We're all gone wrong	T
Said he and Romney that dear friend of ours	E2
Is nowise right There's one true thing on earth
That's love he takes it up and dresses it
And acts a play with it as Hamlet did
To show what cruel uncles we have been	A4
And how we should be uneasy in our minds	E2
While he Prince Hamlet weds a pretty maid
Who keeps us too long waiting we'll confess	E2
By symbol to instruct us formally	Y
To fill the ditches up 'twixt class and class	E2
And live together in phalansteries	E2
What then he's mad our Hamlet clap his play	R3
And bind him
	-
	-
Ah Lord Howe this spectacle	R3
Pulls stronger at us than the Dane's See there
The crammed aisles heave and strain and steam with life
Dear heaven what life
	-
	-
Why yes a poet sees	E2
Which makes him different from a common man	A4
I too see somewhat though I cannot sing	T
I should have been a poet only that
My mother took fright at the ugly world
And bore me tongue tied If you'll grant me now	Y4
That Romney gives us a fine actor piece	E2
To make us merry on his marriage morn	A4
The fable's worse than Hamlet's I'll concede
The terrible people old and poor and blind
Their eyes eat out with plague and poverty	Y
From seeing beautiful and cheerful sights	E2
We'll liken to a brutalised King Lear
Led out by no means to clear scores with wrongs	E2
His wrongs are so far back he has forgot
All's past like youth but just to witness here
A simple contract he upon his side
And Regan with her sister Goneril	R3
And all the dappled courtiers and courtfools	E2
On their side Not that any of these would say	E2
They're sorry neither What is done is done	A4
And violence is now turned privilege	T3
As cream turns cheese if buried long enough
What could such lovely ladies have to do
With the old man there in those ill odorous rags	E2
Except to keep the wind side of him Lear
Is flat and quiet as a decent grave
He does not curse his daughters in the least
Be these his daughters Lear is thinking of
His porridge chiefly is it getting cold
At Hampstead will the ale be served in pots	E2
Poor Lear poor daughters Bravo Romney's play	E2
A murmur and a movement drew around
A naked whisper touched us Something wrong	T
What's wrong The black crowd as an overstrained
Cord quivered in vibration and I saw	E2
Was that his face I saw his Romney Leigh's	E2
Which tossed a sudden horror like a sponge
Into all eyes while himself stood white upon	A4
The topmost altar stair and tried to speak	T
And failed and lifted higher above his head
A letter as a man who drowns and gasps	E2
	-
	-
My brothers bear with me I am very weak	T
I meant but only good Perhaps I meant
Too proudly and God snatched the circumstance	E2
And changed it therefore There's no marriage none	A4
She leaves me she departs she disappears	E2
I lose her Yet I never forced her 'ay '	-
To have her 'no' so cast into my teeth
In manner of an accusation thus	E2
My friends you are dismissed Go eat and drink	T
According to the programme and farewell	R3
He ended There was silence in the church	S
We heard a baby sucking in its sleep	P
At the farthest end of the aisle Then spoke a man	A4
Now look to it coves that all the beef and drink	T
Be not filched from us like the other fun	A4
For beer's spilt easier than a woman's lost
This gentry is not honest with the poor
They bring us up to trick us Go it Jim
A woman screamed back I'm a tender soul	R3
I never banged a child at two years old
And drew blood from him but I sobbed for it
Next moment and I've had a plague of seven	A4
I'm tender I've no stomach even for beef
Until I know about the girl that's lost
That's killed mayhap I did misdoubt at first
The fine lord meant no good by her or us	E2
He maybe got the upper hand of her
By holding up a wedding ring and then	A4
A choking finger on her throat last night
And just a clever tale to keep us still	R3
As she is poor lost innocent 'Disappear '	-
Who ever disappears except a ghost
And who believes a story of a ghost
I ask you would a girl go off instead
Of staying to be married a fine tale	R3
A wicked man I say a wicked man	A4
For my part I would rather starve on gin	A4
Than make my dinner on his beef and beer
At which a cry rose up We'll have our rights	E2
We'll have the girl the girl Your ladies there
Are married safely and smoothly every day
And she shall not drop through into a trap	P
Because she's poor and of the people shame
We'll have no tricks played off by gentlefolk	T
We'll see her righted
	-
	-
Through the rage and roar
I heard the broken words which Romney flung	T
Among the turbulent masses from the ground
He held still with his masterful pale face	E2
As huntsmen throw the ration to the pack	T
Who falling on it headlong dog on dog	T
In heaps of fury rend it swallow it up	P
With yelling hound jaws his indignant words	E2
His suppliant words his most pathetic words	E2
Whereof I caught the meaning here and there
By his gesture torn in morsels yelled across	E2
And so devoured From end to end the church	S
Rocked round us like the sea in storm and then	A4
Broke up like the earth in earthquake Men cried out
Police and women stood and shrieked for God
Or dropped and swooned or like a herd of deer
For whom the black woods suddenly grow alive
Unleashing their wild shadows down the wind
To hunt the creatures into corners back	T
And forward madly fled or blindly fell	R3
Trod screeching underneath the feet of those	E2
Who fled and screeched
	-
	-
The last sight left to me	Y
Was Romney's terrible calm face above
The tumult the last sound was Pull him down	A4
Strike kill him Stretching my unreasoning arms	E2
As men in dreams who vainly interpose	E2
'Twixt gods and their undoing with a cry	R3
I struggled to precipitate myself
Head foremost to the rescue of my soul	R3
In that white face till some one caught me back	T
And so the world went out I felt no more
	-
	-
What followed was told after by Lord Howe	Y4
Who bore me senseless from the strangling crowd
In church and street and then returned alone	A4
To see the tumult quelled The men of law	E2
Had fallen as thunder on a roaring fire
And made all silent while the people's smoke	T
Passed eddying slowly from the emptied aisles	E2
	-
	-
Here's Marian's letter which a ragged child
Brought running just as Romney at the porch	S
Looked out expectant of the bride He sent
The letter to me by his friend Lord Howe	Y4
Some two hours after folded in a sheet
On which his well known hand had left a word
Here's Marian's letter
	-
	-
Noble friend dear saint
Be patient with me Never think me vile	R3
Who might to morrow morning be your wife
But that I loved you more than such a name
Farewell my Romney Let me write it once	E2
My Romney	Y
	-
	-
'Tis so pretty a coupled word
I have no heart to pluck it with a blot
We say 'my God' sometimes upon our knees	E2
Who is not therefore vexed so bear with it
And me I know I'm foolish weak and vain	A4
Yet most of all I'm angry with myself
For losing your last footstep on the stair
That last time of your coming yesterday
The very first time I lost step of yours	E2
Its sweetness comes the next to what you speak	T
But yesterday sobs took me by the throat
And cut me off from music	T
	-
	-
Mister Leigh	Y
You'll set me down as wrong in many things	E2
You've praised me sir for truth and now you'll learn	A4
I had not courage to be rightly true
I once began to tell you how she came
The woman and you stared upon the floor
In one of your fixed thoughts which put me out
For that day After some one spoke of me	Y
So wisely and of you so tenderly	Y
Persuading me to silence for your sake	T
Well well it seems this moment I was wrong	T
In keeping back from telling you the truth
There might be truth betwixt us two at least
If nothing else And yet 'twas dangerous	E2
Suppose a real angel came from heaven	A4
To live with men and women he'd go mad
If no considerate hand should tie a blind
Across his piercing eyes 'Tis thus with you
You see us too much in your heavenly light
I always thought so angel and indeed
There's danger that you beat yourself to death	V
Against the edges of this alien world
In some divine and fluttering pity	Y
	-
	-
Yes	E2
It would be dreadful for a friend of yours	E2
To see all England thrust you out of doors	E2
And mock you from the windows You might say
Or think that's worse 'There's some one in the house	E2
I miss and love still ' Dreadful	R3
	-
	-
Very kind
I pray you mark was Lady Waldemar
She came to see me nine times rather ten	A4
So beautiful she hurts one like the day
Let suddenly on sick eyes	E2
	-
	-
Most kind of all	R3
Your cousin ah most like you Ere you came
She kissed me mouth to mouth I felt her soul	R3
Dip through her serious lips in holy fire
God help me but it made me arrogant
I almost told her that you would not lose	E2
By taking me to wife though ever since	E2
I've pondered much a certain thing she asked
'He loves you Marian ' in a sort of mild
Derisive sadness as a mother asks	E2
Her babe 'You'll touch that star you think '	-
	-
	-
Farewell	R3
I know I never touched it
	-
	-
This is worst
Babes grow and lose the hope of things above
A silver threepence sets them leaping high	R3
But no more stars mark that
	-
	-
I've writ all night
Yet told you nothing God if I could die	R3
And let this letter break off innocent
Just here But no for your sake	T
	-
	-
Here's the last
I never could be happy as your wife
I never could be harmless as your friend
I never will look more into your face	E2
Till God says 'Look ' I charge you seek me not
Nor vex yourself with lamentable thoughts	E2
That peradventure I have come to grief
Be sure I'm well I'm merry I'm at ease	E2
But such a long way long way long way off
I think you'll find me sooner in my grave
And that's my choice observe For what remains	E2
An over generous friend will care for me	Y
And keep me happy happier
	-
	-
There's a blot
This ink runs thick we light girls lightly weep	P
And keep me happier was the thing to say
Than as your wife I could be O my star
My saint my soul for surely you're my soul	R3
Through whom God touched me I am not so lost
I cannot thank you for the good you did
The tears you stopped which fell down bitterly	Y
Like these the times you made me weep for joy
At hoping I should learn to write your notes	E2
And save the tiring of your eyes at night
And most for that sweet thrice you kissed my lips	E2
Saying 'Dear Marian '	-
	-
	-
'Twould be hard to read
This letter for a reader half as learn'd
But you'll be sure to master it in spite
Of ups and downs My hand shakes I am blind
I'm poor at writing at the best and yet
I tried to make my g's the way you showed
Farewell Christ love you Say 'poor Marian' now	Y4
	-
	-
Poor Marian wanton Marian was it so	E2
Or so For days her touching foolish lines	E2
We mused on with conjectural fantasy	Y
As if some riddle of a summer cloud
On which one tries unlike similitudes	Y
Of now a spotted Hydra skin cast off
And now a screen of carven ivory	Y
That shuts the heavens' conventual secrets up	P
From mortals overbold We sought the sense	Y
She loved him so perhaps such words mean love
That worked on by some shrewd perfidious tongue	T
And then I thought of Lady Waldemar
She left him not to hurt him or perhaps	Y
She loved one in her class or did not love
But mused upon her wild bad tramping life
Until the free blood fluttered at her heart
And black bread eaten by the roadside hedge
Seemed sweeter than being put to Romney's school	R3
Of philanthropical self sacrifice	Y
Irrevocably Girls are girls beside
Thought I and like a wedding by one rule	R3
You seldom catch these birds except with chaff
They feel it almost an immoral thing	T
To go out and be married in broad day
Unless some winning special flattery should
Excuse them to themselves for't No one parts	Y
Her hair with such a silver line as you
One moonbeam from the forehead to the crown	A4
Or else You bite your lip in such a way
It spoils me for the smiling of the rest
And so on Then a worthless gaud or two
To keep for love a ribbon for the neck	T
Or some glass pin they have their weight with girls	Y
And Romney sought her many days and weeks	Y
He sifted all the refuse of the town	A4
Explored the trains inquired among the ships	Y
And felt the country through from end to end
No Marian Though I hinted what I knew
A friend of his had reasons of her own	A4
For throwing back the match he would not hear
The lady had been ailing ever since	Y
The shock had harmed her Something in his tone	A4
Repressed me something in me shamed my doubt
To a sigh repressed too He went on to say
That putting questions where his Marian lodged
He found she had received for visitors	Y
Besides himself and Lady Waldemar
And that once me a dubious woman dressed
Beyond us both the rings upon her hands	Y
Had dazed the children when she threw them pence	Y
She wore her bonnet as the queen might hers	Y
To show the crown they said a scarlet crown	A4
Of roses that had never been in bud
	-
	-
When Romney told me that for now and then	A4
He came to tell me how the search advanced
His voice dropped I bent forward for the rest
The woman had been with her it appeared
At first from week to week then day by day
And last 'twas sure
	-
	-
I looked upon the ground
To escape the anguish of his eyes and asked
As low as when you speak to mourners new
Of those they cannot bear yet to call dead
If Marian had as much as named to him
A certain Rose an early friend of hers	Y
A ruined creature
	-
	-
Never Starting up	P
He strode from side to side about the room
Most like some prisoned lion sprung awake	T
Who has felt the desert sting him through his dreams	Y
What was I to her that she should tell me aught
A friend was I a friend I see all clear
Such devils would pull angels out of heaven	A4
Provided they could reach them 'tis their pride
And that's the odds 'twixt soul and body plague	T
The veriest slave who drops in Cairo's street
Cries 'Stand off from me' to the passengers	Y
While these blotched souls are eager to infect
And blow their bad breath in a sister's face	Y
As if they got some ease by it
	-
	-
I broke through
Some natures catch no plagues I've read of babes	Y
Found whole and sleeping by the spotted breast
Of one a full day dead I hold it true
As I'm a woman and know womanhood
That Marian Erle however lured from place	Y
Deceived in way keeps pure in aim and heart
As snow that's drifted from the garden bank	T
To the open road
	-
	-
'Twas hard to hear him laugh
The figure's happy Well a dozen carts	Y
And trampers will secure you presently	Y
A fine white snow drift Leave it there your snow	E2
'Twill pass for soot ere sunset Pure in aim
She's pure in aim I grant you like myself
Who thought to take the world upon my back	T
To carry it o'er a chasm of social ill	R3
And end by letting slip through impotence	Y
A single soul a child's weight in a soul	R3
Straight down the pit of hell yes I and she	Y
Have reason to be proud of our pure aims	Y
Then softly as the last repenting drops	Y
Of a thunder shower he added The poor child
Poor Marian 'twas a luckless day for her
When first she chanced on my philanthropy	Y
	-
	-
He drew a chair beside me and sat down	A4
And I instinctively as women use	Y
Before a sweet friend's grief when in his ear
They hum the tune of comfort though themselves	Y
Most ignorant of the special words of such	S
And quiet so and fortify his brain	A4
And give it time and strength for feeling out
To reach the availing sense beyond that sound
Went murmuring to him what if written here
Would seem not much yet fetched him better help	P
Than peradventure if it had been more
	-
	-
I've known the pregnant thinkers of our time
And stood by breathless hanging on their lips	Y
When some chromatic sequence of fine thought
In learned modulation phrased itself
To an unconjectured harmony of truth
And yet I've been more moved more raised I say
By a simple word a broken easy thing	T
A three years' infant might at need repeat
A look a sigh a touch upon the palm
Which meant less than I love you than by all	R3
The full voiced rhetoric of those master mouths	Y
	-
	-
Ah dear Aurora he began at last
His pale lips fumbling for a sort of smile	R3
Your printer's devils have not spoilt your heart
That's well And who knows but long years ago	E2
When you and I talked you were somewhat right
In being so peevish with me You at least
Have ruined no one through your dreams Instead
You've helped the facile youth to live youth's day
With innocent distraction still perhaps	Y
Suggestive of things better than your rhymes	Y
The little shepherd maiden eight years old
I've seen upon the mountains of Vaucluse	Y
Asleep i' the sun her head upon her knees	Y
The flocks all scattered is more laudable	R3
Than any sheep dog trained imperfectly	Y
Who bites the kids through too much zeal	R3
	-
	-
I look	T
As if I had slept then	A4
	-
	-
He was touched at once	Y
By something in my face Indeed 'twas sure
That he and I despite a year or two
Of younger life on my side and on his	Y
The heaping of the years' work on the days	Y
The three hour speeches from the member's seat
The hot committees in and out of doors	Y
The pamphlets Arguments Collective Views	Y
Tossed out as straw before sick houses just
To show one's sick and so be trod to dirt
And no more use through this world's underground
The burrowing groping effort whence the arm
And heart come torn 'twas sure that he and I	R3
Were after all unequally fatigued
That he in his developed manhood stood
A little sunburnt by the glare of life
While I it seemed no sun had shone on me	Y
So many seasons I had missed my Springs	Y
My cheeks had pined and perished from their orbs	Y
And all the youth blood in them had grown white
As dew on autumn cyclamens alone	A4
My eyes and forehead answered for my face	Y
	-
	-
He said Aurora you are changed are ill	R3
	-
	-
Not so my cousin only not asleep	P
I answered smiling gently Let it be	Y
You scarcely found the poet of Vaucluse	Y
As drowsy as the shepherds What is art
But life upon the larger scale the higher
When graduating up in a spiral line	A4
Of still expanding and ascending gyres	Y
It pushes toward the intense significance	Y
Of all things hungry for the Infinite
Art's life and where we live we suffer and toil	R3
	-
	-
He seemed to sift me with his painful eyes	Y
You take it gravely cousin you refuse	Y
Your dreamland's right of common and green rest
You break the mythic turf where danced the nymphs	Y
With crooked ploughs of actual life let in	A4
The axes to the legendary woods	Y
To pay the poll tax You are fallen indeed
On evil days you poets if yourselves	Y
Can praise that art of yours no otherwise	Y
And if you cannot better take a trade
And be of use 'twere cheaper for your youth
Of use I softly echoed there's the point
We sweep about for ever in argument
Like swallows which the exasperate dying year
Sets spinning in black circles round and round
Preparing for far flights o'er unknown seas	Y
And we where tend we	Y
	-
	-
Where he said and sighed
The whole creation from the hour we are born	A4
Perplexes us with questions Not a stone	A4
But cries behind us every weary step	P
'Where where ' I leave stones to reply to stones	Y
Enough for me and for my fleshly heart
To hearken the invocations of my kind
When men catch hold upon my shuddering nerves	Y
And shriek 'What help what hope what bread i' the house	Y
'What fire i' the frost ' There must be some response	Y
Though mine fail utterly This social Sphinx	Y
Who sits between the sepulchres and stews	Y
Makes mock and mow against the crystal heavens	Y
And bullies God exacts a word at least
From each man standing on the side of God
However paying a sphinx price for it
We pay it also if we hold our peace	Y
In pangs and pity Let me speak and die	R3
Alas you'll say I speak and kill instead
I pressed in there The best men doing their best
Know peradventure least of what they do
Men usefullest i' the world are simply used
The nail that holds the wood must pierce it first
And He alone who wields the hammer sees	Y
The work advanced by the earliest blow Take heart
	-
	-
Ah if I could have taken yours he said
But that's past now Then rising I will take	T
At least your kindness and encouragement
I thank you Dear be happy Sing your songs	Y
If that's your way but sometimes slumber too
Nor tire too much with following out of breath	V
The rhymes upon your mountains of Delight
Reflect if Art be in truth the higher life
You need the lower life to stand upon	A4
In order to reach up unto that higher
And none can stand a tip toe in the place	Y
He cannot stand in with two stable feet
Remember then for Art's sake hold your life
	-
	-
We parted so I held him in respect
I comprehended what he was in heart
And sacrificial greatness Ay but he	Y
Supposed me a thing too small to deign to know	E2
He blew me plainly from the crucible	R3
As some intruding interrupting fly	R3
Not worth the pains of his analysis	Y
Absorbed on nobler subjects Hurt a fly	R3
He would not for the world he's pitiful	R3
To flies even Sing says he and tease me still	R3
If that's your way poor insect That's your way

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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