 | Orta-undis, and other poems |  |
65
TO ANNE.
Disconsolate and ill at ease
The heart that is, a future sees
Affording nought to cheer or please.
The heart that is, a future sees
Affording nought to cheer or please.
But she that owns a quiet mind
To good or evil fate resigned,
No great unhappiness can find
To good or evil fate resigned,
No great unhappiness can find
In any lot. A child in years,
Already have maturer cares
Oppressed thee, and thy eyes to tears
Already have maturer cares
Oppressed thee, and thy eyes to tears
No strangers are. Fair, fresh, and young,
Thrice bitterly thy heart was wrung.
Thrice bitterly thy heart was wrung.
66
For what had they to do with thee,
In thy spring days, despondency,
Or any woful mysteries?
In thy spring days, despondency,
Or any woful mysteries?
Yet when thy eyes were no more blind
With weeping, self-possessed, resigned,
Preëminent arose thy mind.
With weeping, self-possessed, resigned,
Preëminent arose thy mind.
And resolute in doing well,
Didst henceforth teach thy breast to swell
With nought that maiden will could quell.
Didst henceforth teach thy breast to swell
With nought that maiden will could quell.
Thou sawest how man breathes a day
Before re-mingling with his clay:
How feeble in Almighty ken
The most omnipotent of men
Appears: And how the longest life
Is one short struggle in the strife
That rocks the world from age to age.
Before re-mingling with his clay:
How feeble in Almighty ken
The most omnipotent of men
Appears: And how the longest life
Is one short struggle in the strife
That rocks the world from age to age.
67
What worthy hand may write the page
Whose Alexandrine words unbind
Thy upwardly directed mind?
Whose Alexandrine words unbind
Thy upwardly directed mind?
One beat triumphant of the wings,
And dust no more about thee clings,
And all the galaxy of things
And dust no more about thee clings,
And all the galaxy of things
Intangible and vast, expand,
So that thou mayest safely stand
On hitherto a quaking sand.
So that thou mayest safely stand
On hitherto a quaking sand.
Yet must this excellence be wrought
Not by companionship with thought
Not by companionship with thought
Alone: By tracing down the stream
Of life, the glitter of a dream:
Of life, the glitter of a dream:
By repetition vain of creeds:
No,—it is by thy deeds—THY DEEDS,
The flowers will o'ertop the weeds
No,—it is by thy deeds—THY DEEDS,
The flowers will o'ertop the weeds
68
In thy God's-garden. Cheerfully
Do that allotted is to thee,
And fashion out thy destiny;
Do that allotted is to thee,
And fashion out thy destiny;
So that the tomb-doors may not be
Dreaded and dark, but ope to thee
A heaven far as thou can'st see.
Dreaded and dark, but ope to thee
A heaven far as thou can'st see.
1846.
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