Betwixt Two Seas Poems and Ballads (Written at Constantinople and Therapia). By Violet Fane [i.e. M. M. Lamb] |
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EXPERIENCE
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EXPERIENCE
“The middle-aged, who have lived through their strongest emotions, but are yet in the time when memory is still half-passionate and not merely contemplative, should surely be a sort of natural priesthood, whom life has disciplined and consecrated to be the refuge and rescue of early stumblers and victims of self-despair.”
—George Eliot.
Ere one can play fair Juliet on the stage
They say we must have reach'd her nurse's age;
Ere we can know Love as he really is
They say we must grow callous to his kiss;
Yet, wherefore thus? for, surely, did the wise
Instruct our ignorance, and lend us eyes,
Poor Juliet need not evermore be old,
Or Love appraised but when the heart is cold?
Could these not teach and preach? . . . Nay, loud and clear
They teach and preach to ears that will not hear!
| Betwixt Two Seas | |