If earth holds aught---speak truth---above her?

Above this tress, and this, I touch
But cannot praise, I love so much!

A WOMAN'S LAST WORD.
I.

Let's contend no more, Love,
Strive nor weep:

All be as before, Love,
---Only sleep!

II.
What so wild as words are?

I and thou
In debate, as birds are,

Hawk on bough!
III.

See the creature stalking
While we speak!

Hush and hide the talking,
Cheek on cheek!

IV.
What so false as truth is,

False to thee?
Where the serpent's tooth is

Shun the tree---
V.

Where the apple reddens
Never pry---

Lest we lose our Edens,
Eve and I.

VI.
Be a god and hold me

With a charm!
Be a man and fold me

With thine arm!
VII.

Teach me, only teach, Love
As I ought

I will speak thy speech, Love,
Think thy thought---

VIII.
Meet, if thou require it,

Both demands,
Laying flesh and spirit

In thy hands.
IX.

That shall be to-morrow
Not to-night:

I must bury sorrow
Out of sight:

X
---Must a little weep, Love,

(Foolish me!)
And so fall asleep, Love,

Loved by thee.
EVELYN HOPE.

I.
Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead!

Sit and watch by her side an hour.
That is her book-shelf, this her bed;

She plucked that piece of geranium-flower,
Beginning to die too, in the glass;

Little has yet been changed, I think:
The shutters are shut, no light may pass

Save two long rays thro' the hinge's chink.
II.

Sixteen years old, when she died!
Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name;

It was not her time to love; beside,
Her life had many a hope and aim,

Duties enough and little cares,
And now was quiet, now astir,

Till God's hand beckoned unawares,---
And the sweet white brow is all of her.

III.
Is it too late then, Evelyn Hope?

What, your soul was pure and true,
The good stars met in your horoscope,

Made you of spirit, fire and dew---
And, just because I was thrice as old

And our paths in the world diverged so wide,
Each was nought to each, must I be told?

We were fellow mortals, nought beside?
IV.

No, indeed! for God above
Is great to grant, as mighty to make,

And creates the love to reward the love:
I claim you still, for my own love's sake!

Delayed it may be for more lives yet,
Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few:

Much is to learn, much to forget
Ere the time be come for taking you.

V.
But the time will come,---at last it will,

When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say)
In the lower earth, in the years long still,

That body and soul so pure and gay?
Why your hair was amber, I shall divine,

And your mouth of your own geranium's red---
And what you would do with me, in fine,

In the new life come in the old one's stead.
VI.

I have lived (I shall say) so much since then,
Given up myself so many times,

Gained me the gains of various men,
Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;

Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,
Either I missed or itself missed me:

And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope!
What is the issue? let us see!

VII.
I loved you, Evelyn, all the while.

My heart seemed full as it could hold?
There was place and to spare for the frank young smile,

And the red young mouth, and the hair's young gold.
So, hush,---I will give you this leaf to keep:

See, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand!
There, that is our secret: go to sleep!

You will wake, and remember, and understand.
LOVE AMONG THE RUINS.

I.
Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles,

Miles and miles
On the solitary pastures where our sheep

Half-asleep
Tinkle homeward thro' the twilight, stray or stop

As they crop---
Was the site once of a city great and gay,

(So they say)
Of our country's very capital, its prince

Ages since
Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far

Peace or war.
II.

Now,---the country does not even boast a tree,
As you see,

To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills
From the hills

Intersect and give a name to, (else they run
Into one)

Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires
Up like fires

O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall
Bounding all,

Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed,
Twelve abreast.

III.
And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass

Never was!
Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads

And embeds
Every vestige of the city, guessed alone,

Stock or stone---
Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe

Long ago;
Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame

Struck them tame;
And that glory and that shame alike, the gold

Bought and sold.
IV.

Now,---the single little turret that remains
On the plains,

By the caper overrooted, by the gourd
Overscored,

While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks
Through the chinks---

Marks the basementwhence a tower in ancient time
Sprang sublime,

And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced
As they raced,

And the monarch and his minions and his dames
Viewed the games.

V.
And I know, while thus the quiet-coloured eve

Smiles to leave
To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece

In such peace,
And the slopes and rills in undistinguished grey

Melt away---
That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair

Waits me there
In the turretwhence the charioteers caught soul

For the goal,
When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb

Till I come.
VI.

But he looked upon the city, every side,
Far and wide,

All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades'
Colonnades,

All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts,---and then,
All the men!

When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand,
Either hand

On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace
Of my face,

Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech
Each on each.

VII.
In one year they sent a million fighters forth

South and North,
And they built their gods a brazenpillar high

• debate [di´beit] n.&v.讨论，辩论 (初中英语单词)
• reward [ri´wɔ:d] n.&v.报答；报酬；奖赏 (初中英语单词)
• twilight [´twailait] n.黎明；黄昏 (初中英语单词)
• distinguish [di´stiŋgwiʃ] v.区分；识别；立功 (初中英语单词)
• circuit [´sə:kit] n.环行 v.(绕....)环行 (初中英语单词)
• marble [´mɑ:bəl] n.大理石 a.大理石的 (初中英语单词)
• carpet [´kɑ:pit] n.地毯 vt.铺地毯 (初中英语单词)
• multitude [´mʌltitju:d] n.大群(批)；众多 (初中英语单词)
• blossom [´blɔsəm] n.花；开花期 vi.开花 (初中英语单词)
• monarch [´mɔnək] n.君主；(大)王 (初中英语单词)
• contend [kən´tend] v.竞争；斗争；争论 (高中英语单词)
• mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
• traverse [´trævə:s] vt.横越，穿过 (高中英语单词)
• solitary [´sɔlitəri] a.独居的；孤独的 (高中英语单词)
• homeward [´həumwəd] ad.&a.回家(的) (高中英语单词)
• perfection [pə´fekʃən] n.完美；极致；熟练 (高中英语单词)
• breathless [´breθlis] a.屏息的 (高中英语单词)
• pillar [´pilə] n.支柱 vt.用柱支持 (高中英语单词)
• thrice [θrais] ad.三倍地；三次 (英语四级单词)
• nought [nɔ:t] n.=naught (英语四级单词)
• daring [´deəriŋ] a.&n.勇敢(的) (英语四级单词)
• turret [´tʌrit] n.塔楼；炮塔；转台 (英语四级单词)
• basement [´beismənt] n.地下室 (英语四级单词)
• whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
• extinguish [ik´stiŋgwiʃ] vt.熄灭；压制(抑) (英语四级单词)
• brazen [´breizən] a.黄铜制的；无耻的 (英语四级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
• vestige [´vestidʒ] n.形迹；痕迹；遗迹 (英语六级单词)