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.II.

Of hatred I am proud,-with scorn content;
Indifference, that once hurt me, now is grown 1

Itself indifferent.

But, not to speak of love, pity alone

Can break a spirit already more than bent.
The miserable one

Turns the mind's poison into food,-
Its medicine is tears,-its evil good.

1

III.

Therefore, if now I see you seldomer,

Dear friends, dear friend!2 know that I only fly
Your looks, because they stir

Griefs that should sleep, and hopes that cannot die: The very comfort that they minister

I scarce can bear, yet I,

So deeply is the arrow gone,

Should quickly perish if it were withdrawn.

IV.

When I return to my cold home, you ask
Why I am not as I have ever been.

You spoil me for the task

Of acting a forced part in life's dull scene,

Of wearing on my brow the idle mask

Of author, great or mean,

In the world's carnival. I sought

Peace thus, and but in you I found it not.

1 In Mr. Rossetti's edition, Indifference, which once hurt me, is now grown...

So in the second edition of 1839 and Mr. Rossetti's; but in Ascham's and in the first edition of 1839, we

read, instead,

Dear, gentle friend!

3 So in Mrs. Shelley's editions; but lately in Mr. Rossetti's.

4 So in Mr. Trelawny's MS., but on in Mrs. Shelley's editions.

V.

Full half an hour, to-day, I tried my lot
With various flowers, and every one still said,

She loves me1- loves me not."

And if this meant a vision long since fledIf it meant fortune, fame, or peace of thought— If it meant,but I dread

To speak what you may know too well: Still there was truth in the sad oracle.

VI.

The crane o'er seas and forests seeks her home;
No bird so wild but has its quiet nest,
When it no more would roam;

The sleepless billows on the ocean's breast
Break like a bursting heart, and die in foam,3
And thus at length find rest.

Doubtless there is a place of peace
Where my weak heart and all its throbs will cease.

VII.

I asked her, yesterday, if she believed

That I had resolution. One who had

Would ne'er have thus relieved

His heart with words, but what his judgment bade Would do, and leave the scorner unrelieved. 5

These verses are too sad

To send to you, but that I know, Happy yourself, you feel another's woe.

1 The note, "See Faust," reproduced here by Mrs. Shelley from Aschain's edition, is highly suggestive of the origin in periodical literature which I suspect. It is like a magazine editor's

note.

2 Whence in Ascham's edition and the first of 1839; but When in the second and Mr. Rossetti's.

3 In the first edition of 1839, Burst like a bursting heart, and die in peace,

but the line appears as in the text in the second edition and Mr. Rossetti's. 4 In the first edition of 1839 shall, -in the second will.

5 So in the second edition of 1839 and Mr. Rossetti's; but unreprieved in the two earlier editions.

6 So in Mrs. Shelley's editions, and in Ascham's; but were in Mr. Rossetti's.

TO-MORROW.1

I.

WHERE art thou, beloved To-morrow?

When young and old and strong and weak,
Rich and poor, through joy and sorrow, .

Thy sweet smiles we ever seek,

In thy place-ah! well-a-day!
We find the thing we fled-To-day.

II.

If I walk in Autumn's even
While the dead leaves pass,
If I look on Spring's soft heaven,—
Something is not there which was.
Winter's wondrous frost and snow,
Summer's clouds, where are they now?

ΤΟ

I.

ONE word is too often profaned
For me to profane it,

1 Stanza I of this song appears in the Posthumous Poems: stanza II, I give in this connexion on internal evidence alone, for it was not published until 1870, having been communicated by Mr. Garnett to Mr. Rossetti, as an independent fragment. It seems to me to balance the other stanza so perfectly both in thought and in style that I can hardly think the connexion will be questioned. I have, however,

put the matter before Mr. Garnett, who found the stanza among the Boscombe MSS., and is better qualified than any one else to judge of the probabilities of the case; and he thinks there is " 'every probability that the two stanzas should be connected."

2 This and the next poem were first given by Mrs. Shelley in the Posthu mous Poems.

One feeling too falsely disdained
For thee to disdain it.

One hope is too like despair
For prudence to smother,
And pity from thee more dear

Than that from another.

II.

I can give not what men call love,
But wilt thou accept not

The worship the heart lifts above
And the Heavens reject not,
The desire of the moth for the star,
Of the night for the morrow,

The devotion to something afar
From the sphere of our sorrow?

ΤΟ

I.

WHEN passion's trance is overpast,
If tenderness and truth could last.
Or live, whilst all wild feelings keep
Some mortal slumber, dark and deep,
I should not weep, I should not weep!

II.

It were enough to feel, to see,
Thy soft eyes gazing tenderly,

And dream the rest-and burn and be

The secret food of fires unseen,

Couldst thou but be as thou hast been.

III.

After the slumber of the year
The woodland violets re-appear,

All things revive in field or grove,

And sky and sea, but two, which move,

And form1 all others, life and love.

A BRIDAL SONG.2

I.

THE golden gates of Sleep unbar

Where Strength and Beauty met together,
Kindle their image like a star

In a sea of glassy weather.
Night, with all thy stars look down,-
Darkness, weep thy holiest dew,-
Never smiled the inconstant moon
On a pair so true.

Let eyes not see their own delight;-
Haste, swift Hour, and thy flight

Oft renew.

II.

Fairies, sprites, and angels keep her!
Holy stars, permit no wrong!
And return to wake the sleeper,
Dawn,-ere it be long!

Oh joy! oh fear! what will be done
In the absence of the sun!

Come along!

1 In Mrs. Shelley's editions, for; but form in the MS. in Sir Percy Shelley's possession. See Relics of Shelley, p. 95. * Of the three versions of this Song,

the first appears in the Posthumous Poems and Mrs. Shelley's collected editions: the second is from Medwin's Life of Shelley; and the third was

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