Then died, with Lazarus by, for aught I know, And yet was . . what I said nor choose repeat, And must have so avouched himself, in fact, 275 In hearing of this very Lazarus Who saith-but why all this of what he saith? 280 Thy pardon for this long and tedious case, Which, now that I review it, needs must seem Unduly dwelt upon, prolixly set forth! 285 Nor I myself discern in what is writ Good cause for the peculiar interest And awe indeed this man has touched me with. Had wrought upon me first. I met him thus: 290 295 The man and I. I send thee what is writ. Regard it as a chance, a matter risked To this ambiguous Syrian: he may lose, Or steal, or give it thee with equal good. For time this letter wastes, thy time and mine; 300 281. Blue-flowering borage. A plant valued for its stimulating medical properties. "The ancients deemed this plant one of the four cordial flowers,' for cheering the spirits, the others being the rose, violet, and alkanet." Aleppo. A city of Syria. 289-303. Karshish apologizes for dwelling at length on the case of this recovered epileptic Jew, and promises to write at leisure from Jerusalem on matters of more moment. The very God! think, Abib; dost thou think? Meeting at Night * I THE gray sea and the long black land; II Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach; Parting at Morning ROUND the cape of a sudden came the sea, And straight was a path of gold for him, And the need of a world of men for me. 305 310 5 IO 304-312. Art and science are thrust aside: the man's very soul cries out for God, the God of this despised "madman.' "" *Meeting at Night and Parting at Morning were published in 1845 in the seventh number of Bells and Pomegranates. The speaker is a man who at night goes gladly home to peace and love, and at morning as gladly back to the world and work. Prospice * FEAR death?-to feel the fog in my throat, When the snows begin, and the blasts denote I am nearing the place, The power of the night, the press of the storm, 5 The post of the foe; Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form, Yet the strong man must go: For the journey is done and the summit attained, ΙΟ Tho' a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained, I was ever a fighter, so-one fight more, The best and the last! I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, And bade me creep past. 16 No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears 20 For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave, *Prospice (look forward), written the fall after Mrs. Browning's death, was published in Dramatis Personæ in 1864. It expresses the poet's scorn of the idle and cowardly fear of death, and his faith in personal immortality. "Death," said Browning when its shadow was over him, "is life, just as our daily, our momentarily, dying body is none the less alive and ever recruiting new forces of existence. Without death, which is our crape-like churchyardy word for change, for growth, there could be no prolongation of that which we call life. myself, I deny death as an end of anything. Never say of me that I am dead." 7. Arch Fear. Death. For 11. Guerdon (LL. widerdonum. A half translation of the OHG. widarlon, widar, back again + lon, reward). Recompense. 19. Brunt (Ice. brenna, burn). "The 'brunt' of the battle is the 'heat' of the battle where it burns most fiercely."-Trench. Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again, Epilogue to "Asolando."* AT the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time, When you set your fancies free, 26 Will they pass to where-by death, fools think, imprisoned— Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so, -Pity me? Oh to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken! What had I on earth to do With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly? Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless, did I drivel -Being-who? 5 ΙΟ One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, tho' right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake. No, at noonday in the bustle of man's work-time Greet the unseen with a cheer! Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, There as here!" 27. A beautiful allusion to his wife. 15 20 The Epilogue to Asolando, 1889, is "the last word spoken by Browning to the world. It is an epilogue not only to Asolando but to the whole of his life. reminds us of Browning's bracing, tonic effect upon all of us, and the hopefulness and support he has afforded many in hours of gloom or trouble. Standing apart from criticism, the poem is brave, energetic, stimulant."-F. M. Wilson. Compare with this Tennyson's swan song, Crossing the Bar. Reread also Browning's Prospice, which it suggests. 8. Mawkish (Ice. madhkr, maggot). Sickening, insipid. 13. Worsted. Defeated; have the worst of it. 19. Fare (AS. faran, travel). Go on; often used impersonally. Evelyn Hope BEAUTIFUL Evelyn Hope is dead! Sit and watch by her side an hour. That is her book-shelf, this her bed; She plucked that piece of geranium-flower, Beginning to die too, in the glass; Little has yet been changed, I think; 5 The shutters are shut, no light may pass And our paths in the world diverged so wide, Each was naught to each, must I be told? We were fellow mortals, naught beside ? No, indeed! for God above Is great to grant, as mighty to make, And creates the love to reward the love: 25 I claim you still, for my own love's sake! Delayed it may be for more lives yet, Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few: 30 Much is to learn, much to forget Ere the time be come for taking you. |