 | The Poetical Works of Robert Browning |  |
49
III.—IN THE DOORWAY.
I
The swallow has set her six young on the rail,And looks sea-ward:
The water's in stripes like a snake, olive-pale
To the leeward,—
On the weather-side, black, spotted white with the wind.
“Good fortune departs, and disaster's behind,”—
Hark, the wind with its wants and its infinite wail!
II
Our fig-tree, that leaned for the saltness, has furledHer five fingers,
Each leaf like a hand opened wide to the world
Where there lingers
No glint of the gold, Summer sent for her sake:
How the vines writhe in rows, each impaled on its stake!
My heart shrivels up and my spirit shrinks curled.
50
III
Yet here are we two; we have love, house enough,With the field there,
This house of four rooms, that field red and rough,
Though it yield there,
For the rabbit that robs, scarce a blade or a bent;
If a magpie alight now, it seems an event;
And they both will be gone at November's rebuff.
IV
But why must cold spread? but wherefore bring changeTo the spirit,
God meant should mate his with an infinite range,
And inherit
His power to put life in the darkness and cold?
Oh, live and love worthily, bear and be bold!
Whom Summer made friends of, let Winter estrange!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Browning | |