TELL you, hopeless grief is passionless,
That only men incredulous of despair,
Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight
air
Beat upward to God's throne in loud access
Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness
In souls, as countries, lieth silent, bare,
Under the blenching vertical eye-glare
Of the absolute heavens. Deep-hearted man, express
Grief for thy dead in silence like to death;
Most like a monumental statue set
In everlasting watch and moveless woe,
Till itself crumbles to the dust beneath.
Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet:
If it could weep, it would arise and go.
HANK God, bless God, all ye who suffer not
More grief than ye can weep for. That is well;
That is light grieving. Lighter none befell
Since Adam forfeited the primal lot.
Tears! what are tears? The babe weeps in its cot, The mother singing; at her marriage bell
The bride weeps; and before the oracle
Of high-famed hills the poet hath forgot
That moisture on his cheeks. Thank God for grace,
Whoever weep; albeit, as some have done,
Ye grope tear-blinded in a desert place,
And touch but tombs, look up: those tears will run
Soon in long rivers down the lifted face,
And leave the vision clear for stars and sun.
qvae caret tristitia lamentis caret.
Qvi posse desperare non credunt viri,
Gens semidocta qvid sit angorem pati,
Per vastitatem noctis ad sedem Dei
Grassantur aegris eiulationibus
Et improbo stridore. Desolata qvae
Mens tota marcet, aridae ritu plagae,
Se muta caeli dedit impotentiae,
Sub axe solis nuda candentis iacens.
O cordis alti qvisqvis es, silentio
Mortem exprimente mortuos plora tuos ;
Ceu ficta saxo statua, qvae sedet super
Aeterna busto vigilia, immotus dolor,
Dum putris ipsa pulverem in putrem cadat.
Tu palpebras i tange, non madet lapis ;
Si flere posset, iret erecto gradu.
Flere aliquod Solamen habet.
RATES aspirare Deo cum laude memento,
Qvi non plura doles qvam possis flere. Dolentem
Flere levis labor est: levior non contigit ulli
Ex qvo primaevam sortem labefecit Adamus.
Qvid lacrimae? cunis flet in ipsis parvulus infans,
Cantando mater, claroqve vocante hymenaeo
Sponsa flet, exsultansqve intrat Parnasia templa
Nec reputat stillare genas hoc rore poeta.
O laudate bonum, fletis qvicumqve, Parentem ;
Qvamqvam errore vago, sunt qvis hoc contigit, acti
Et caeci lacrimis inter deserta locorum
Nil manibus praeter tumulos contingitis, illuc
Suspicite; hae lacrimae per vultus suspicientum,
Flumina longa, cadent pedetentim, et nube remota
Clarescent oculi stellis soliqve videndis.
OULD Love part thus? Was it not well to speak,
To have spoken once? It could not but be well.
The slow sweet hours that bring us all things
The slow sad hours that bring us all things ill,
And all good things from evil, brought the night
In which we sat together and alone,
And to the want, that hollowed all the heart,
Gave utterance by the yearning of an eye,
That burned upon its object through such tears
As flow but once a life.
To those caresses, when a hundred times
In that last kiss, which never was the last,
Farewell, like endless Welcome, lived and died.
Then followed counsel, comfort, and the words
That make a man feel strong in speaking truth;
Till now the dark was worn, and overhead
The lights of sunset and of sunrise mixed
In that brief night; the summer night, that paused
Among her stars to hear us; stars that hung
Love-charmed to listen: all the wheels of Time
Spun round in station, but the end had come.
O then like those, who clench their nerves to rush
Upon their dissolution, we two rose,
There closing like an individual life-
In one blind cry of passion and of pain,
Like bitter accusation ev'n to death,
Caught up the whole of love, and uttered it,
And bade adieu for ever.
Quod Crimen praeter amasse?
IC fuerit divulsus amor? Qvae culpa loqventum?
Crimen erat qvantum non tacuisse semel?
Crimen erat nullum. Sed tempora tarda
Dum portant homini qvae bona cumqve iuvant :
Qvae mala cumqve angunt portantia tarda moventur,
Dumqve bonas referunt post mala longa vices.
Et noctem nobis, qva soli sedimus una,
Haec eadem, qvamvis tarda, tulere tamen,
Cum desiderium, qvod pectore surgit ab imo,
Prodidit obtutu vultus uterqve suo,
Prodidit et lacrimis. Nulli bis contigit ardor
Ille, neqve hoc fletu bis maduere genae.
Oscula succedunt; qvaeqve ultima, prima videntur,
Et dictura Vale lingva susurrat Have.
Consilium seqvitur, solamina, qvalia vere
Dicta viri firmant pectus ad omne bonum.
At primo iam mane breves agitante tenebras
Sol oriens tinctus sole cadente redit.
Nox aestiva moras inter sua sidera nectit,
Addiderant aures sidera capta suas :
In medio motu vel stat vel stare videtur
Circuitus mundi: sed prope finis erat.
Ut miseri qvondam, firmati robore nervos,
Dant se praecipites in sua fata viri,
Sic nos erigimur simul et consurgimus ambo,
Una qvod haec rerum meta duobus adest.
Protinus ingentem promit vox rupta dolorem,
Ceu fremit in sontes cum gravis ira reos :
Alter enim simili perculsus et altera sensu
Dixit Amo, Tempus, dixit, in omne vale.
HILES through the world she walked in this sort,
Upon a day she found this gentle childe
Among his peres playing his childish sport;
Whom seeing fit and with no crime defilde,
She did allure with gifts and speeches milde
To wend with her: so thence him farre she brought
Into a cave from companie exilde,
In which she noursled him till yeares he raught;
And all the discipline of justice there him taught.
There she him taught to weigh both right and wrong
In equall ballance with due recompence,
And equitie to measure out along
According to the line of conscience,
Whenso it needs with rigour to dispence:
Of all the which, for want there of mankind,
She caused him to make experience
Upon wyld beasts, which she in woods did find,
With wrongfull powre oppressing others of their kind.
HY such a golden eve? The breeze is sent
Careful and soft, that not a leaf may fall
Before the serene father of them all
Bows down his summer head below the west.
But, at the setting, I must bid adieu
To her for the last, last time. Night will strew
On the damp grass myriads of lingering leaves;
And with them shall I die: nor much it grieves
To die, when Summer dies on the cold sward.
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