University of Virginia Library


114

LXXXII. THE VINE AND THE OAK.

Yet how canst thou, O gentle girlish soul,
Quite comprehend the larger soul of me?
Can the white sea-bird apprehend the sea,
Or the soft lute the far-off thunder's roll?
Some love thou mayest grasp, but not the whole.
Still I would wish my heart of love for thee
With all its joy and deep solemnity
To reach in some degree thy mind's clear goal.
“Pain I have had; and deeper pain than thine.”
So to the fir-tree smitten by the stroke
Of heaven's red lightning the soft rose-bush spoke:
And why? Because the sun had ceased to shine!
So wept, for one slight shower, the tender vine
To the storm-sundered storm-defiant oak!—