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Poems and Essays

By the late William Caldwell Roscoe. (Edited with a Prefatory Memoir, by his Brother-in-law, Richard Holt Hutton)
Roscoe, William Caldwell (1823-1859)

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MINOR POEMS.
  
[Clouds and mists and vapours dim]
  
THE FALSE FONTANLEE.
  
F. M.
  
AD PYRRHAM.
  
TO LAURA R.,
  
ARIADNE.
  
A NIGHTINGALE IN EASTBURY WOODS.
  
AFTER THE HUNGARIAN WAR.
  
OPPORTUNITY.
  
LINES AFTER MY FATHER'S DEATH.
  
TO THE PLANET VENUS,
  
[Rarely to our mortal eyes]
  
TO THE MARCH SUN.
  
A DREAM AND NO DREAM.
  
VENIT.
  
[When I asked her, “Wilt thou kiss me?’]
  
THE GOLDEN DAYS.
  
LOVE'S CREED.
  
[On many an English lady's face]
  
EXCUSE.
  
[A presence! a glory celestial!]
  
SONG.
  
OVER THE WEST.
  
“FREI IST DER BURSCH!”
  
TO LITTLE A. C. IN THE GARDEN AT EASTBURY.
  
FOR EVER.
  
AFTER MY SISTER'S DEATH.
  
AT THE SAME TIME.
  
AT NIGHT, AFTER MY SISTER'S DEATH.
  
[Why fear that the departed grieves]
  
FORD GREY OF WERKE TO HIS MISTRESS.
  
[I have a thought that fain would speak]
  
“IF IT DIE, IT BRINGETH FORTH MUCH FRUIT.”
  
MUSIC.
  
A BLIND GIRL'S QUESTIONINGS.
  
BEFORE DAWN.
  
BY THE SEASHORE.
  
A VISION.
  
[Lord, at thy feet we do not kneel]
  
THE YEAR OF LOVE.
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SONNETS.
  
A WET AUTUMN.
  
AT THE CHESHIRE POINT, LINLEY WOOD.
  
[Like a musician that with flying finger]
  
AT NIGHT.
  
MY FATHER'S DEATH.
  
TO MY MOTHER.
  
GIBSON'S STATUE OF AURORA.
  
TO M. S.
  
M. S.
  
TO THE REV. JOHN HAMILTON THOM.
  
[O Muse the Comforter! that in this vale]
  
TO A LADY PREFERRING CALM TO PASSIONATE POETRY.
  
LAUDATRIX TEMPORIS ACTI.
  
MIDNIGHT ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.
  
THE TWO NIGHTS.
  
A CHRISTMAS SONNET.
  
[Sad is my lot; among the shining spheres]
  
TO A FRIEND IN GRIEF.
  
TO A FRIEND.
  
IN DEJECTION. I.
  
IN DEJECTION II.
  
I
  
II
  
III
  
DAYBREAK IN FEBRUARY.
  
SYMBOLS OF VICTORY.
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ELIDUKE, COUNT OF YVELOC.
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ACT I
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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ACT II.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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ACT III.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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ACT IV.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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ACT V.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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Scene IV.
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Scene V.
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VIOLENZIA.
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ACT I.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene IV.
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ACT II.
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Scene I.
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Scene III.
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Scene VI.
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Scene VII.
 VIII. 
Scene VIII.
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ACT III.
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Scene III.
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ACT IV.
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Scene I.
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Scene VI.
 VII. 
Scene VII.
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ACT V.
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Scene III.
  
[The bubble of the silver-springing waves]

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38

LOVE'S CREED.

Sitting once with my beloved,
When our inmost hearts were moved
With love and joy,
She leaned her head upon my breast,
And, “Oh,” she said, “a girl so blest!—
Darling boy!
Since first the rolling world went round,
Upon its face was never found
As this of thine.
Love never was so richly heaped
On any heart, none e'er so steeped
In joy divine.”
“Ah, child,” I said, “since Love first laid
His kingly finger on a maid,
And bowed her tongue
The sacred secret to disclose,
How, deep among her virgin snows,
His waters sprung,
None worthy to sustain his power,
But felt in his fresh morning-hour
A bliss supreme;—
But felt as if she stood alone,
Clothed in a joy none else could own,—
A heavenly dream!”
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But she, “There are degrees in this,—
Degrees in love, degrees in bliss,
As I can show.
Some more, some less of heaven may prove;
But only I have thee to love,
And this I know.
When you enfold me in your arms,
Secure of love, secure from harms,
As now you do,—
You may go search Time's kingdom over,
A peace you never shall discover,
So full, so true.”
I smiled, and bending down did close
Eyes that in fond remonstrance rose
With kisses sweet.
I said, “No girl that ever pressed
Into a lover's happy breast
Since heart first beat,
But did esteem herself the first;
And thought no babe was ever nursed
In such sweet rest.”
Yet still she would not be denied,
But shook her shining head and cried,
“None e'er so blest!”
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