English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 680. Dedication of the Ring and the Book |
| | | Robert Browning (1812–1889) |
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| O LYRIC Love, half angel and half bird, | |
| And all a wonder and a wild desire,— | |
| Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun, | |
| Took sanctuary within the holier blue, | |
| And sang a kindred soul out to his face,— | 5 |
| Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart— | |
| When the first summons from the darkling earth | |
| Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue, | |
| And bared them of the glory—to drop down, | |
| To toil for man, to suffer or to die,— | 10 |
| This is the same voice: can thy soul know change? | |
| Hail then, and harken from the realms of help! | |
| Never may I commence my song, my due | |
| To God who best taught song by gift of thee, | |
| Except with bent head and beseeching hand— | 15 |
| That still, despite the distance and the dark, | |
| What was, again may be; some interchange | |
| Of grace, some splendor once thy very thought, | |
| Some benediction anciently thy smile: | |
| —Never conclude, but raising hand and head | 20 |
| Thither where eyes, that cannot reach, yet yearn | |
| For all hope, all sustainment, all reward, | |
| Their utmost up and on,—so blessing back | |
| In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home, | |
| Some whiteness which, I judge, thy face makes proud, | 25 |
| Some wanness where, I think, thy foot may fall! | |
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