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Of peaceful radiance; silvering o'er the stream
Of human thought with unabiding glory;
Not quite a waking truth; not quite a dream;
A visitation; bright and transitory。
But she is changed; … hath felt the touch of sorrow;
No love hath she; no understanding friend;
O grief! when Heaven is forced of earth to borrow
What the poor niggard earth has not to lend;
But when the stalk is snapped; the rose must bend。
The tallest flower that skyward rears its head
Grows from the common ground; and there must shed
Its delicate petals。 Cruel fate; too surely;
That they should find so base a bridal bed;
Who lived in virgin pride; so sweet and purely。
She had a brother; and a tender father;
And she was loved; but not as others are
From whom we ask return of love; … but rather
As one might love a dream; a phantom fair
Of something exquisitely strange and rare;
Which all were glad to look on; men and maids;
Yet no one claimed … as oft; in dewy glades;
The peering primrose; like a sudden gladness;
Gleams on the soul; yet unregarded fades; …
The joy is ours; but all its own the sadness。
'Tis vain to say … her worst of grief is only
The common lot; which all the world have known;
To her 'tis more; because her heart is lonely;
And yet she hath no strength to stand alone; …
Once she had playmates; fancies of her own;
And she did love them。 They are passed away
As Fairies vanish at the break of day;
And like a spectre of an age departed;
Or unsphered Angel wofully astray;
She glides along … the solitary…hearted。
Hartley Coleridge '1796…1849'
OF THOSE WHO WALK ALONE
Women there are on earth; most sweet and high;
Who lose their own; and walk bereft and lonely;
Loving that one lost heart until they die;
Loving it only。
And so they never see beside them grow
Children; whose coming is like breath of flowers;
Consoled by subtler loves the angels know
Through childless hours。
Good deeds they do: they comfort and they bless
In duties others put off till the morrow;
Their look is balm; their touch is tenderness
To all in sorrow。
Betimes the world smiles at them; as 'twere shame;
This maiden guise; long after youth's departed;
But in God's Book they bear another name …
〃The faithful…hearted。〃
Faithful in life; and faithful unto death;
Such souls; in sooth; illume with lustre splendid
That glimpsed; glad land wherein; the Vision saith;
Earth's wrongs are ended。
Richard Burton '1861…
〃SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY〃
She walks in beauty; like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies。
One shade the more; one ray the less;
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure; how dear their dwelling…place。
And on that cheek; and o'er that brow
So soft; so calm; yet eloquent;
The smiles that win; the tints that glow;
But tell of days in goodness spent;
A mind at peace with all below;
A heart whose love is innocent!
George Gordon Byron '1788…1824'
PRELUDES
From 〃The Angel in the House〃
I
UNTHRIFT
Ah; wasteful woman; she that may
On her sweet self set her own price;
Knowing man cannot choose but pay;
How has she cheapened paradise;
How given for nought her priceless gift;
How spoiled the bread; and spilled the wine;
Which; spent with due; respective thrift;
Had made brutes men; and men divine。
II
HONOR AND DESERT
O Queen; awake to thy renown;
Require what 'tis our wealth to give;
And comprehend and wear the crown
Of thy despised prerogative!
I; who in manhood's name at length
With glad songs come to abdicate
The gross regality of strength;
Must yet in this thy praise abate;
That; through thine erring humbleness
And disregard of thy degree;
Mainly; has man been so much less
Than fits his fellowship with thee。
High thoughts had shaped the foolish brow;
The coward had grasped the hero's sword;
The vilest had been great; hadst thou;
Just to thyself; been worth's reward。
But lofty honors undersold
Seller and buyer both disgrace;
And favors that make folly bold
Banish the light from virtue's face。
III
THE ROSE OF THE WORLD
Lo; when the Lord made North and South;
And sun and moon ordained; He;
Forthbringing each by word of mouth
In order of its dignity
Did man from the crude clay express
By sequence; and all else decreed;
He formed the woman; nor might less
Than Sabbath such a work succeed。
And still with favor singled out;
Marred less than man by mortal fall;
Her disposition is devout;
Her countenance angelical:
The best things that the best believe
Are in her face so kindly writ
The faithless; seeing her; conceive
Not only heaven; but hope of it;
No idle thought her instinct shrouds;
But fancy chequers settled sense;
Like alteration of the clouds
On noonday's azure permanence。
Pure dignity; composure; ease;
Declare affections nobly fixed;
And impulse sprung from due degrees
Of sense and spirit sweetly mixed。
Her modesty; her chiefest grace;
The cestus clasping Venus' side;
How potent to deject the face
Of him who would affront its pride!
Wrong dares not in her presence speak;
Nor spotted thought its taint disclose
Under the protest of a cheek
Outbragging Nature's boast; the rose。
In mind and manners how discreet;
How artless in her very art;
How candid in discourse; how sweet
The concord of her lips and heart!
How simple and how circumspect;
How subtle and how fancy…free;
Though sacred to her love; how decked
With unexclusive courtesy;
How quick in talk to see from far
The way to vanquish or evade;
How able her persuasions are
To prove; her reasons to persuade。
How (not to call true instinct's bent
And woman's very nature; harm);
How amiable and innocent
Her pleasure in her power to charm;
How humbly careful to attract;
Though crowned with all the soul desires;
Connubial aptitude exact;
Diversity that never tires!
IV
THE TRIBUTE
Boon Nature to the woman bows;
She walks in earth's whole glory clad;
And; chiefest far herself of shows;
All others help her and are glad:
No splendor 'neath the sky's proud dome
But serves her for familiar wear;
The far…fetched diamond finds its home
Flashing and smouldering in her hair;
For her the seas their pearls reveal;
Art and strange lands her pomp supply
With purple; chrome; and cochineal;
Ochre; and lapis lazuli;
The worm its golden woof presents;
Whatever runs; flies; dives; or delves;
All doff for her their ornaments;
Which suit her better than themselves;
And all; by this their power to give;
Proving her right to take; procla