Browning's Shorter Poems Part 7

LOVE AMONG THE RUINS

Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles Miles and miles On the solitary pastures where our sheep Half-asleep Tinkle homeward thro' the twilight, stray or stop As they crop-- Was the site once of a city great and gay, (So they say) Of our country's very capital, its prince Ages since 10 Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far Peace or war.

Now,--the country does not even boast a tree, As you see, To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills From the hills Intersect and give a name to (else they run Into one), Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires Up like fires 20 O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall Bounding all, Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed, Twelve abreast.

And such plenty and perfection, see, of gra.s.s Never was!

Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads And embeds Every vestige of the city, guessed alone, Stock or stone-- 30 Where a mult.i.tude of men breathed joy and woe Long ago; l.u.s.t of glory p.r.i.c.ked their hearts up, dread of shame Struck them tame; And that glory and that shame alike, the gold Bought and sold.

Now,--the single little turret that remains On the plains, By the caper overrooted, by the gourd Overscored, 40 While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks Thro' the c.h.i.n.ks-- Marks the bas.e.m.e.nt whence a tower in ancient time Sprang sublime, And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced As they raced, And the monarch and his minions and his dames Viewed the games.

And I know--while thus the quiet-coloured eve Smiles to leave 50 To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece In such peace, And the slopes and rills in undistinguished gray Melt away-- That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair Waits me there In the turret whence the charioteers caught soul For the goal, When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb Till I come, 60

But he looked upon the city, every side, Far and wide, All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades'

Colonnades, All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts,--and then, All the men!

When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand, Either hand On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace Of my face, 70 Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech Each on each.

In one year they sent a million fighters forth South and North, And they built their G.o.ds a brazen pillar high As the sky, Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force-- Gold, of course.

Oh heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!

Earth's returns 80 For whole centuries of folly, noise, and sin!

Shut them in, With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!

Love is best.

MISCONCEPTIONS

This is a spray the bird clung to, Making it blossom with pleasure, Ere the high tree-top she sprung to, Fit for her nest and her treasure.

Oh, what a hope beyond measure Was the poor spray's, which the flying feet hung to,-- So to be singled out, built in, and sung to!

This is a heart the Queen leant on, Thrilled in a minute erratic, Ere the true bosom she bent on, 10 Meet for love's regal dalmatic. 11 Oh, what a fancy ecstatic Was the poor heart's, ere the wanderer went on-- Love to be saved for it, proffered to, spent on!

NATURAL MAGIC

All I can say is--I saw it!

The room was as bare as your hand.

I locked in the swarth little lady,--I swear, From the head to the foot of her--well, quite as bare!

"No Nautch shall cheat me," said I, "taking my stand 5 At this bolt which I draw!" And this bolt--I withdraw it, And there laughs the lady, not bare, but embowered With--who knows what verdure, o'erfruited, o'erflowered?

Impossible! Only--I saw it!

All I can sing is--I feel it! 10 This life was as blank as that room; I let you pa.s.s in here. Precaution, indeed?

Walls, ceiling, and floor,--not a chance for a weed!

Wide opens the entrance: where's cold, now, where's gloom?

No May to sow seed here, no June to reveal it, Behold you enshrined in these blooms of your bringing, These fruits of your bearing--nay, birds of your winging!

A fairy-tale! Only--I feel it!

APPARITIONS

(_Prologue to "The Two Poets of Croisic."_)

Such a starved bank of moss Till, that May-morn, Blue ran the flash across: Violets were born!

Sky--what a scowl of cloud Till, near and far, Ray on ray split the shroud: Splendid, a star!

World--how it walled about Life with disgrace, 10 Till G.o.d's own smile came out: That was thy face!

A WALL

O the old wall here! How I could pa.s.s Life in a long midsummer day, My feet confined to a plot of gra.s.s, My eyes from a wall not once away!

And lush and lithe do the creepers clothe Yon wall I watch, with a wealth of green: Its bald red bricks draped, nothing loath, In lappets of tangle they laugh between.

Now, what is it makes pulsate the robe?

Why tremble the sprays? What life o'erbrims 10 The body,--the house no eye can probe,-- Divined, as beneath a robe, the limbs?

And there again! But my heart may guess Who tripped behind; and she sang, perhaps: So the old wall throbbed, and its life's excess Died out and away in the leafy wraps.

Wall upon wall are between us: life And song should away from heart to heart!

I--prison-bird, with a ruddy strife At breast, and a lip whence storm-notes start-- 20

Hold on, hope hard in the subtle thing That's spirit: tho' cloistered fast, soar free; Account as wood, brick, stone, this ring Of the rueful neighbours, and--forth to thee!

CONFESSIONS