Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Farewells from Paradise

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

HARK! the flow of the four rivers—

Hark the flow!

How the silence round you shivers,

While our voices through it go,

Cold and clear.

Think a little, while ye hear,

Of the banks

Where the willows and the deer

Crowd in intermingled ranks,

As if all would drink at once

Where the living water runs!—

Of the fishes’ golden edges

Flashing in and out the sedges;

Of the swans on silver thrones,

Floating down the winding streams

With impassive eyes turned shoreward

And a chant of undertones,—

And the lotus leaning forward

To help them into dreams.

Fare ye well, farewell!

The river-sounds, no longer audible,

Expire at Eden’s door.

Each footstep of your treading

Treads out some murmur which ye heard before.

Farewell! the streams of Eden

Ye shall hear nevermore!

I am the nearest nightingale

That singeth in Eden after you;

And I am singing loud and true,

And sweet,—I do not fail.

I sit upon a cypress bough,

Close to the gate, and I fling my song

Over the gate and through the mail

Of the warden angels marshall’d strong,—

Over the gate and after you!

And the warden angels let it pass,

Because the poor brown bird, alas,

Sings in the garden, sweet and true.

And I build my song of high pure notes,

Note over note, height over height,

Till I strike the arch of the Infinite,

And I bridge abysmal agonies

With strong, clear calms of harmonies,—

And something abides, and something floats,

In the song which I sing after you.

Fare ye well, farewell!

The creature-sounds, no longer audible,

Expire at Eden’s door.

Each footstep of your treading

Treads out some cadence which ye heard before.

Farewell! the birds of Eden

Ye shall hear nevermore!