``Its cloud away and save his soul.
VII.

``For, when he lies upon thy breast,
``Thou mayst demand and be possessed

``Of all his plans, and next day steal
``To me, and all those plans reveal,

``That I and every priest, to purge
``His soul, may fast and use the scourge.''

VIII.
That father's beard was long and white,

With love and truth his brow seemed bright;
I went back, all on fire with joy,

And, that same evening, bade the boy
Tell me, as lovers should, heart-free,

Something to prove his love of me.
IX.

He told me what he would not tell
For hope of heaven or fear of hell;

And I lay listening in such pride!
And, soon as he had left my side,

Tripped to the church by morning-light
To save his soul in his despite.

X.
I told the father all his schemes,

Who were his comrades, what their dreams;
``And now make haste,'' I said, ``to pray

``The one spot from his soul away;
``To-night he comes, but not the same

``Will look!'' At night he never came.
XI.

Nor next night: on the after-morn,
I went forth with a strength new-born.

The church was empty; something drew
My steps into the street; I knew

It led me to the market-place:
Where, lo, on high, the father's face!

XII.
That horrible black scaffold dressed,

That stapled block ... God sink the rest!
That head strapped back, that blinding vest,

Those knotted hands and naked breast,
Till near one busy hangman pressed,

And, on the neck these arms caressed ...
XIII.

No part in aught they hope or fear!
No heaven with them, no hell!---and here,

No earth, not so much space as pens
My body in their worst of dens

But shall bear God and man my cry,
Lies---lies, again---and still, they lie!

CRISTINA.
I.

She should never have looked at me
If she meant I should not love her!

There are plenty ... men, you call such,
I suppose ... she may discover

All her soul to, if she pleases,
And yet leave much as she found them:

But I'm not so, and she knew it
When she fixed me, glancing round them,

II.
What? To fix me thus meant nothing?

But I can't tell (there's my weakness)
What her look said!---no vile cant, sure,

About ``need to strew the bleakness
``Of some lone shore with its pearl-seed.

``That the sea feels''---no strange yearning
``That such souls have, most to lavish

``Where there's chance of least returning.''
III.

Oh, we're sunk enough here, God knows!
But not quite so sunk that moments,

Sure tho' seldom, are denied us,
When the spirit's true endowments

Stand out plainly from its false ones,
And apprise it if pursuing

Or the right way or the wrong way,
To its triumph or undoing.

IV.
There are flashes struck from midnights,

There are fire-flames noondays kindle,
Whereby piled-up honours perish,

Whereby swollen ambitions dwindle,
While just this or that poor impulse,

Which for once had play unstifled,
Seems the sole work of a life-time

That away the rest have trifled.
V.

Doubt you if, in some such moment,
As she fixed me, she felt clearly,

Ages past the soul existed,
Here an age 'tis resting merely,

And hence fleets again for ages,
While the true end, sole and single,

It stops here for is, this love-way,
With some other soul to mingle?

VI.
Else it loses what it lived for,

And eternally must lose it;
Better ends may be in prospect,

Deeper blisses (if you choose it),
But this life's end and this love-bliss

Have been lost here. Doubt you whether
This she felt as, looking at me,

Mine and her souls rushed together?
VII.

Oh, observe! Of course, next moment,
The world's honours, in derision,

Trampled out the light for ever:
Never fear but there's provision

Of the devil's to quench knowledge
Lest we walk the earth in rapture!

---Making those who catch God's secret
Just so much more prize their capture!

VIII.
Such am I: the secret's mine now!

She has lost me, I have gained her;
Her soul's mine: and thus, grown perfect,

I shall pass my life's remainder.
Life will just hold out the proving

Both our powers, alone and blended:
And then, come next life quickly!

This world's use will have been ended.
THE LOST MISTRESS.

I.
All's over, then: does truth sound bitter

As one at first believes?
Hark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter

About your cottage eaves!
II.

And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,
I noticed that, to-day;

One day more bursts them open fully
---You know the red turns grey.

III.
To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?

May I take your hand in mine?
Mere friends are we,---well, friends the merest

Keep much that I resign:
IV.

For each glance of the eye so bright and black,
Though I keep with heart's endeavour,---

Your voice, when you wish the snowdrops back,
Though it stay in my soul for ever!---

V.
Yet I will but say what mere friends say,

Or only a thought stronger;
I will hold your hand but as long as all may,

Or so very little longer!
EARTH'S IMMORTALITIES.

FAME.
See, as the prettiest graves will do in time,

Our poet's wants the freshness of its prime;
Spite of the sexton's browsing horse, the sods

Have struggled through its binding osier rods;
Headstone and half-sunk footstone lean awry,

Wanting the brick-work promised by-and-by;
How the minute grey lichens, plate o'er plate,

Have softened down the crisp-cut name and date!
LOVE.

So, the year's done with
(_Love me for ever!_)

All March begun with,
April's endeavour;

May-wreaths that bound me
June needs must sever;

Now snows fall round me,
Quenching June's fever---

(_Love me for ever!_)
MEETING AT NIGHT.

I.
The grey sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap

In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,

And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.
II.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;

A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,

And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

PARTING AT MORNING.
Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,

And the sun looked over the mountain's rim:
And straight was a path of gold for him,

And the need of a world of men for me.
SONG.

I.
Nay but you, who do not love her,

Is she not pure gold, my mistress?
Holds earth aught---speak truth---above her?

Aught like this tress, see, and this tress,
And this last fairest tress of all,

So fair, see, ere I let it fall?
II.

Because, you spend your lives in praising;
To praise, you search the wide world over:

Then why not witness, calmly gazing,

• priest [pri:st] n.教士；牧师；神父 (初中英语单词)
• horrible [´hɔrəbəl] a.可怕的；恐怖的 (初中英语单词)
• plainly [´pleinli] ad.平坦地；简单地 (初中英语单词)
• triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
• cottage [´kɔtidʒ] n.村舍；小屋；小别墅 (初中英语单词)
• witness [´witnis] n.见证人 vt.目击 (初中英语单词)
• calmly [´kɑ:mli] ad.平静地；无风浪地 (初中英语单词)
• quench [kwentʃ] v.熄灭；平息；压制 (高中英语单词)
• swollen [´swəulən] swell的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
• freshness [´freʃnis] n.新鲜 (英语四级单词)
• binding [´baindiŋ] a.捆绑的 n.捆绑(物) (英语四级单词)
• eternally [i:´tə:nli] ad.永久地；不朽地 (英语六级单词)
• beating [´bi:tiŋ] n.敲；搅打；失败 (英语六级单词)