| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| Thomas Edward Brown. 1830–1897 |
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| 791. Jessie |
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| WHEN Jessie comes with her soft breast, | |
| And yields the golden keys, | |
| Then is it as if God caress'd | |
| Twin babes upon His knees— | |
| Twin babes that, each to other press'd, | 5 |
| Just feel the Father's arms, wherewith they both are bless'd. | |
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| But when I think if we must part, | |
| And all this personal dream be fled— | |
| O then my heart! O then my useless heart! | |
| Would God that thou wert dead— | 10 |
| A clod insensible to joys and ills— | |
| A stone remote in some bleak gully of the hills! | |
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