No More Learning

FROM VICTOR HUGO


CHILD, were I king, I'd yield my royal rule,
My chariot, sceptre, vassal-service due,
My crown, my porphyry-basined waters cool,
My fleets, whereto the sea is but a pool,
For a glance from you!

Love, were I God, the earth and its heaving airs,
Angels, the demons abject under me,
Vast chaos with its teeming womby lairs,
Time, space, all would I give--aye, upper spheres,
For a kiss from thee!



CARDINAL BEMBO'S EPITAPH ON RAPHAEL


HERE'S one in whom Nature feared--faint at such vying--
Eclipse while he lived, and decease at his dying.




RETROSPECT


"I HAVE LIVED WITH SHADES"


I

I HAVE lived with shades so long,
And talked to them so oft,
Since forth from cot and croft
I went mankind among,
That sometimes they
In their dim style
Will pause awhile
To hear my say;

II

And take me by the hand,
And lead me through their rooms
In the To-be, where Dooms
Half-wove and shapeless stand:
And show from there
The dwindled dust
And rot and rust
Of things that were.

III

"Now turn," spake they to me
One day: "Look whence we came,
And signify his name
Who gazes thence at thee. "--
--"Nor name nor race
Know I, or can,"
I said, "Of man
So commonplace.

IV

"He moves me not at all;
I note no ray or jot
Of rareness in his lot,
Or star exceptional.
Into the dim
Dead throngs around
He'll sink, nor sound
Be left of him. "

V

"Yet," said they, "his frail speech,
Hath accents pitched like thine--
Thy mould and his define
A likeness each to each--
But go! Deep pain
Alas, would be
His name to thee,
And told in vain! "

_Feb. _ 2, 1899.



MEMORY AND I


"O MEMORY, where is now my youth,
Who used to say that life was truth? "

"I saw him in a crumbled cot
Beneath a tottering tree;
That he as phantom lingers there
Is only known to me. "

"O Memory, where is now my joy,
Who lived with me in sweet employ?
"

"I saw him in gaunt gardens lone,
Where laughter used to be;
That he as phantom wanders there
Is known to none but me. "

"O Memory, where is now my hope,
Who charged with deeds my skill and scope? "

"I saw her in a tomb of tomes,
Where dreams are wont to be;
That she as spectre haunteth there
Is only known to me. "

"O Memory, where is now my faith,
One time a champion, now a wraith? "

"I saw her in a ravaged aisle,
Bowed down on bended knee;
That her poor ghost outflickers there
Is known to none but me. "

"O Memory, where is now my love,
That rayed me as a god above? "

"I saw him by an ageing shape
Where beauty used to be;
That his fond phantom lingers there
Is only known to me. "



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