ON THE SAME SUBJECT

          THOUGH I beheld at first with blank surprise
          This Work, I now have gazed on it so long
          I see its truth with unreluctant eyes;
          O, my Beloved! I have done thee wrong,
          Conscious of blessedness, but, whence it sprung,
          Ever too heedless, as I now perceive:
          Morn into noon did pass, noon into eve,
          And the old day was welcome as the young,
          As welcome and as beautiful--in sooth
          More beautiful, as being a thing more holy:                 10
          Thanks to thy virtues, to the eternal youth
          Of all thy goodness, never melancholy;
          To thy large heart and humble mind, that cast
          Into one vision, future, present, past.
                                                              1841.