Dramatic Scenes With Other Poems, Now First Printed. By Barry Cornwall [i.e. Bryan Waller Procter]. Illustrated |
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PLATONIC. |
 | Dramatic Scenes |  |
PLATONIC.
What say you?—“I like yon' lady there;
She me; no further we intend,
But nurse this friendship-flower with care,
And live and die—just friend and friend.
She me; no further we intend,
But nurse this friendship-flower with care,
And live and die—just friend and friend.
I scarce know what her shape may be;
Her colour—is it dark or light?
Eyes she must have, for she can see;
Haply you'll tell me they are bright.
Her colour—is it dark or light?
Eyes she must have, for she can see;
Haply you'll tell me they are bright.
It is the mind which I admire,
The intellectual virtuous soul,
The pale pure splendour without fire,
That lightens up the perfect whole.
The intellectual virtuous soul,
The pale pure splendour without fire,
That lightens up the perfect whole.
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In what fair guise the Soul is drest,
In rustic beauty, courtly grace,
What heed? I care not for the rest,
So Intellect hath its thronèd place.”
In rustic beauty, courtly grace,
What heed? I care not for the rest,
So Intellect hath its thronèd place.”
—Peace! Ignorant of the good and bright!
Blind scorner of the gifts of God,
Following whose footsteps came the Light,
While Beauty blossomed as he trod.
Blind scorner of the gifts of God,
Following whose footsteps came the Light,
While Beauty blossomed as he trod.
Learn, Virtue is not more his own
Than Beauty: both he gave combined,
Knowing each could not thrive alone,
So in the body bound the mind:
Than Beauty: both he gave combined,
Knowing each could not thrive alone,
So in the body bound the mind:
And from the body, and from its brain
And nerves come issuing (how who knows?)
Those pangs of thought, of joy, of pain,
That keep and crown it to the close,
And nerves come issuing (how who knows?)
Those pangs of thought, of joy, of pain,
That keep and crown it to the close,
When Life, (its duty done), the strange
Consolidated fabric leaves,
And soaring—elsewhere for a change,
Again bears evil pains, and grieves,
Again feels joy and hope, rejoices and believes.
Consolidated fabric leaves,
And soaring—elsewhere for a change,
Again bears evil pains, and grieves,
Again feels joy and hope, rejoices and believes.
| Dramatic Scenes | |