| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Aloof | | By Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894) |
| | | THE IRRESPONSIVE silence of the land, | |
| The irresponsive sounding of the sea, | |
| Speak both one message of one sense to me:— | |
| Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand | |
| Thou too aloof, bound with the flawless band | 5 |
| Of inner solitude; we bind not thee; | |
| But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free? | |
| What heart shall touch thy heart? What hand thy hand? | |
| And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek, | |
| And sometimes I remember days of old | 10 |
| When fellowship seem’d not so far to seek, | |
| And all the world and I seem’d much less cold, | |
| And at the rainbow’s foot lay surely gold, | |
| And hope felt strong, and life itself not weak. | | | | |
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