An English Madonna :: :: University of Virginia Library

The sudden change to calm smooth waters when the harbour
Receives the weary boat: the restful green deep arbour
After the dusty road:
After the crowded street a lawn with elms upon it,—
A band of music there, and many a dainty bonnet,
And sweeter faces than the hot street showed:

After the tossed white sea a pool of green still water
Wherein some white-limbed nymph the great green oaktree's daughter
Bathes with blue laughing eyes:
After the fierce wild storm the blue sky pure and tender:
After bronzed brows of men a woman's untanned splendour:
After the night the royal red sunrise:

After the weary day the night-time cool and gracious:
After the city-walls a golden corn-field spacious
Wherein red poppies gleam:
Upon the Atlantic surge a lonely wave-tossed vessel
Whose masts in the mad wind bend, shriek, and toil, and wrestle,—
Yet in the cabin eyes where love-thoughts dream:

These contrasts all are sweet:—Yet sweeter than the sweetest
It was when thou didst come, of all loves far the fleetest,
The swiftest tenderest thing,—
Contrasting with my past thine own ethereal brightness
And with the black pain-cloud thy more than sea-bird's whiteness,
As through yon rain-cloud flashes one white wing.