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vi

TO PHILIP BOURKE MARSTON.

Sweet Poet, thou of whom these years that roll
Must one day yet the burdened birthright learn,
And by the darkness of thine eyes discern
How piercing was the sight within thy soul, —
Gifted, apart, thou goest to the great goal,
A cloud-bound, radiant spirit, strong to earn,
Light-reft, that prize for which fond myriads yearn
Vainly, light-blest, — the Seer's aureole.
And doth thine ear, divinely dowered to catch
All spheral sounds in thy song blent so well,
Still hearken for my voice's slumbering spell
With wistful love? Oh, let the muse now snatch
My wreath for thy young brows, and bend to watch
Thy veiled transfiguring sense's miracle!
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.