Break, break, break, At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead THE POET'S SONG First published in 1843. The rain had fallen, the Poet arose, He pass'd by the town and out of the street, A light wind blew from the gates of the sun, And waves of shadow went over the wheat, And he sat him down in a lonely place, And chanted a melody loud and sweet, That made the wild-swan pause in her cloud, And the lark drop down at his feet. The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee,1 The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak, And stared, with his foot on the prey, And the nightingale thought, "I have sung many songs, But never a one so gay, For he sings of what the world will be When the years have died away". 11889, Fly. APPENDIX The Poems published in MDCCCXXX and in MDCCCXXXIII which mere temporarily or finally suppressed. Those which mere afterwards republished, at different times, in the Collected Works are printed in large type, those which were afterwards suppressed altogether are printed in small type. POEMS PUBLISHED IN MDCCCXXX ELEGIACS Reprinted in Collected Works among Juvenilia, with title altered to Leonine Elegiacs. The only alterations made in the text were "wood-dove" for "turtle," and the substitution of "or" for "and" in the last line but one. Lowflowing breezes are roaming the broad valley dimm'd in the gloaming: Thoro' the black-stemm'd pines only the far river shines. Creeping thro" blossomy rushes and bowers of rose-blowing bushes, Down by the poplar tall rivulets babble and fall. Barketh the shepherd-dog cheerily; the grasshopper carolleth clearly; Deeply the turtle coos; shrilly the owlet halloos ; Winds creep; dews fell chilly: in her first sleep earth breathes stilly: Over the pools in the burn watergnats murmur and mourn. Throbbing in mild unrest holds him beneath in her breast. The ancient poetess singeth, that Hesperus all things bringeth, even. False-eyed Hesper, unkind, where is my sweet Rosalind? THE "HOW" AND THE "WHY” I am any man's suitor, Some think it speedeth fast: In time there is no present, In eternity no past. We laugh, we cry, we are born, we die, Who will riddle me the how and the why? The bulrush nods unto its brother, The wheatears whisper to each other: What is it they say? What do they there? Why two and two make four? Why round is not square? Why the rocks stand still, and the light clouds fly? Why the heavy oak groans, and the white willows sigh? Why deep is not high, and high is not deep? Whether we wake, or whether we sleep? Who will riddle me the how and the why? The world is somewhat; it goes on somehow; The little bird pipeth, "why? why?" " In the summerwoods when the sun falls low Why the life goes when the blood is spilt? Who will riddle me the how and the what? SUPPOSED CONFESSIONS OF A SECONDRATE SENSITIVE MIND NOT IN UNITY WITH ITSELF There has been only one important alteration made in this poem, when it was reprinted among the Juvenilia in 1871, and that was the suppression of the verses beginning "A grief not uninformed and dull" to "Indued with immortality" inclusive, and the substitution of "rosy" for "waxen". Capitals are in all cases inserted in the reprint where the Deity is referred to, "through" is altered into "thro'" all through the poem, and hyphens are inserted in the double epithets. No further alterations were made in the edition of 1830. Oh God! my God! have mercy now. I faint, I fall. Men say that thou Didst die for me, for such as me, Patient of ill, and death, and scorn, Of ignorance, I should require Would rive the slumbrous summernoon Think my belief would stronger grow! Is not my human pride brought low? All cold, and dead, and corpse-like grown? And faith in thee? Men pass me by; And women smile with saint-like glances And thou and peace to earth were born. I one of them: my brothers they : |