LEAR and Cordelia ! 't was an ancient tale
Before thy Shakespeare gave it deathless fame :
The times have changed, the moral is the same.
So, like an outcast, dowerless and pale,
Thy daughter went, and in a foreign gale
Spread her young banner, till its sway became A wonder to the nations. Days of shame Are close upon thee: prophets raise their wail. When the rude Cossack with an outstretched hand Points his long spear across the narrow sea, "Lo! there is England!"- when thy destiny Storms on thy straw-crowned head, and thou dost stand Weak, helpless, mad, a by-word in the land,
God grant thy daughter a Cordelia be!
I ASK not for those thoughts, that sudden leap
From being's sea, like the isle-seeming kraken,
With whose great rise the ocean all is shaken,
And a heart-tremble quivers through the deep;
Give me that growth, which some perchance deem sleep,
Wherewith the steadfast coral-stems uprise,
Which, by the toil of gathering energies,
Their upward way into clear sunshine keep,
Until, by Heaven's sweetest influences,
Slowly and slowly spreads a speck of green
Into a pleasant island in the seas,
Where, 'mid tall palms, the cane-roofed home is seen,
And wearied men shall sit at sunset's hour,
Hearing the leaves, and loving God's dear power.
TO M. W., ON HER BIRTHDAY.
MAIDEN! when such a soul as thine is born,
The morning stars their ancient music make,
And, joyful, once again their song awake,
Long silent now with melancholy scorn;
And thou, not mindless of so blest a morn,
By no least deed its harmony shalt break,
But shalt to that high chime thy footsteps take,
Through life's most darksome passes unforlorn :
Therefore from thy pure faith thou shalt not fall,
Therefore shalt thou be ever fair and free,
And in thine every motion musical
As summer-air, majestic as the sea,
A mystery to those who creep and crawl
Through Time, and part it from Eternity!
BELOVED! in the noisy city here
The thought of thee can make all turmoil cease;
Around my spirit, folds thy spirit clear
Its still, soft arms, and circles it with peace:
There is no room for any doubt or fear
In souls so overfilled with love's increase;
There is no memory of the by-gone year,
But growth in heart's and spirit's perfect ease.
How hath our love-half nebulous at first-
Rounded itself into a full-orbed sun!
How have our lives and wills (as haply erst
They were, ere this forgetfulness begun)
Through all their earthly distantness outburst,
And melted, like two rays of light, in one!
THROUGH Suffering and sorrow thou hast passed
To show us what a woman true may be :
They have not taken sympathy from thee,
Nor made thee any other than thou wast,
Save as some tree, which in a sudden blast
Sheddeth those blossoms that are weakly grown
Upon the air, but keepeth every one
Whose strength gives warrant of good fruit at last :
So thou hast shed some blooms of gayety,
But never one of steadfast cheerfulness s;
Nor hath thy knowledge of adversity
Robbed thee of any faith in happiness,
But rather cleared thine inner eyes to see
How many simple ways there are to bless!
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