Lorn autumns and triumphant springs; Of happier men-for they, at least, Prolonged; nor knew, although not less II ES! in the sea of life enisled, With echoing straits between us thrown, Dotting the shoreless watery wild, We mortal millions live alone. The islands feel the enclasping flow, And then their endless bounds they know. But when the moon their hollows lights, And lovely notes, from shore to shore, Oh! then a longing like despair Is to their farthest caverns sent; For surely once, they feel, we were Parts of a single continent! Now round us spreads the watery plain- 145 Who ordered, that their longing's fire Matthew Arnold EARS, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; Dear as remembered kisses after death, Alfred Tennyson REAK, break, break, BREAKAY On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! O, well for the fisherman's boy, O, well for the sailor lad, That he sings in his boat on the bay! And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill; But O for the touch of a vanished hand, Break, break, break, At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead Alfred Tennyson YOUTH AND AGE VERSE, a breeze 'mid blossoms straying, With Nature, Hope, and Poesy, When I was young?—Ah, woeful When! This body that does me grievous wrong, O'er aery cliffs and glittering sands How lightly then it flashed along: Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore, On winding lakes and rivers wide, That ask no aid of sail or oar, That fear no spite of wind or tide! Nought cared this body for wind or weather When Youth and I lived in't together. Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like; O! the joys, that came down shower-like, Which tells me, Youth's no longer here! It cannot be that thou art gone! I see these locks in silvery slips, And tears take sunshine from thine eyes! Life is but thought: so think I will Dewdrops are the gems of morning, Where no hope is, life's a warning -That only serves to make us grieve Samuel Taylor Coleridge 8 CRABBED Age and Youth Cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasance, Age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather, Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare: Youth is full of sport, Age's breath is short, Youth is nimble, Age is lame: Youth is hot and bold, Age is weak and cold, Youth is wild, and Age is tame: Age, I do abhor thee, Youth, I do adore thee; |