XIX. Oh, their Rafael of the dear Madonnas, 200 PROSPICE. FEAR death?-to feel the fog in my throat, When the snows begin, and the blasts denote I am nearing the place, The power of the night, the press of the storm, The post of the foe, Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form? Yet the strong man must go ; For the journey is done and the summit attained, Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained, I was ever a fighter, so-one fight more, The best and the last! 5 10 I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, 15 And bade me creep past. No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers, The heroes of old, Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears 20 For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave, Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again, Uor M 25 INVOCATION. From the 'RING AND THE Book.' O lyric Love, half angel and half bird, Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart When the first summons from the darkling earth This is the same voice: can thy soul know change? 10 15 20 In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home, Some whiteness, which, I judge, thy face makes proud, s Some wanness where, I think, thy foot may fall. 5 A WALL. I. O THE old wall here! How I could pass II. And lush and lithe do the creepers clothe III. Now, what is it makes pulsate the robe? The body-the house no eye can probe- IV. And there again! But my heart may guess V. Wall upon wall are between us; life And song should away from heart to heart! I-prison-bird, with a ruddy strife At breast, and a lip whence storm-notes start ΙΟ 15 20 |