 | Studies in verse (1865) |  |
So ending called her children, for the shrubs
Were dewed, and night prevailed about the sky,
Save that one orange ember-cloud was moved
In cold and olive twilight. Mary kissed
Her children as they entered: and the three
Sat earnest in a parliament of love
On William and his fortunes half the night,
And all his large success that was to be.
And still they talked, until they came to plan
The ways and means of spending to the best
This wealth colossal but unrealised;
Half fearing the responsibilities
Of phantom wishes and of fairy gold.
Till their lean candle, lower than its ring,
Lay gasping out its melancholy life,
And sent them flushed with fancy to their rest;
Where still the gentle sister in her dream,
Mixing the Sunday lesson with their talk,
Dreamt that she saw her brother set on high,
Like one of old in Egypt, but he gave
The people from his sacks not corn but gold.
Were dewed, and night prevailed about the sky,
Save that one orange ember-cloud was moved
In cold and olive twilight. Mary kissed
Her children as they entered: and the three
Sat earnest in a parliament of love
On William and his fortunes half the night,
And all his large success that was to be.
And still they talked, until they came to plan
31
This wealth colossal but unrealised;
Half fearing the responsibilities
Of phantom wishes and of fairy gold.
Till their lean candle, lower than its ring,
Lay gasping out its melancholy life,
And sent them flushed with fancy to their rest;
Where still the gentle sister in her dream,
Mixing the Sunday lesson with their talk,
Dreamt that she saw her brother set on high,
Like one of old in Egypt, but he gave
The people from his sacks not corn but gold.
| Studies in verse (1865) | |