ROBERT BROWNING. Then, welcome each rebuff Be our joys three parts pain! For thence a paradox Which comforts while it mocks Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail : What I aspired to be, And was not, comforts me: 205 Thence shall I pass, approved A man, for aye removed From the developed brute; a God though in the germ. And I shall thereupon A brute I might have been, but would Take rest, ere I be gone not sink i' the scale. What is he but a brute Whose flesh hath soul to suit, Once more on my adventure brave and new: Fearless and unperplexed, When I wage battle next, Whose spirit works lest arms and legs What weapons to select, what armor to want play? To man, propose this test, Thy body at its best, indue. Youth ended, I shall try How far can that project thy soul on its My gain or loss thereby; lone way? Yet gifts should prove their use: I own the Past profuse Of power each side, perfection every turn: Eyes, ears took in their dole, Brain treasured up the whole; Be the fire ashes, what survives is gold: And I shall weigh the same, Give life its praise or blame : Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old. For note, when evening shuts, Should not the heart beat once, "How A certain moment cuts Maker, remake, complete, I trust what Let me discern, compare, pronounce at For more is not reserved To man, with soul just nerved gain most, as To act to-morrow what he learns to-day : I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!" As the bird wings and sings, Here, work enough to watch The Master work, and catch Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. As it was better, youth Should strive, through acts uncouth, Toward making, than repose on aught All men ignored in me, found made; So, better, age, exempt From strife, should know, than tempt Further. Thou waitedst age; wait death nor be afraid! Enough now, if the Right And Good and Infinite This I was worth to God, whose wheel Ay, note that Potter's wheel, Why time spins fast, why passive lies our Thou, to whom fools propound, Be named here, as thou callest thy hand When the wine makes its round, thine own, With knowledge absolute, Subject to no dispute "Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!" From fools that crowded youth, nor let Fool! All that is, at all, thee feel alone. Be there, for once and all, Lasts ever, past recall; Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure: What entered into thee, Announced to each his station in the That was, is, and shall be: Past! Was I, the world arraigned, Were they, my soul disdained, Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure. Right? Let age speak the truth and He fixed thee mid this dance give us peace at last! Now, who shall arbitrate? Ten men love what I hate, Of plastic circumstance, This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest: Machinery just meant To give thy soul its bent, Shun what I follow, slight what I re- Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently ceive; Ten, who in ears and eyes Match me we all surmise, impressed. What though the earlier grooves They, this thing, and I, that: whom shall Which ran the laughing loves Look not thou down, but up! Found straightway to its mind, could To uses of a cup, value in a trice: But all, the world's coarse thumb And finger failed to plumb, The festal board, lamp's flash, and trumpet's peal, The new wine's foaming flow, The Master's lips aglow! So passed in making up the main account; Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what All instincts immature, All purposes unsure, needst thou with earth's wheel? That weighed not as his work, yet swelled But I need, now as then, Fancies that broke through language and With shapes and colors rife, escaped; All I could never be, Bound dizzily - mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst: Now he patted his horse's side, But mostly he watched with eager search But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight A second lamp in the belfry burns! | A hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet : That was all! And yet, through the The fate of a nation was riding that night; gloom and the light, And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat. He has left the village and mounted the steep, And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep, Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides; Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides. Standing, with reluctant feet, Gazing, with a timid glance, Then why pause with indecision, Seest thou shadows sailing by, Hearest thou voices on the shore, 209 O, thou child of many prayers! Like the swell of some sweet tune, Childhood is the bough, where slumbered When the young heart overflows, Bear a lily in thy hand; Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, O, that dew, like balm, shall steal And that smile, like sunshine, dart A PSALM OF LIFE. |