wish to stand 145
This evening in that dear, lost land,
Over the sea the thousand miles,
And know if yet that woman smiles
With the calm smile; some little farm
She lives in there, no doubt; what harm 150
If I sat on the door-side bench,
And, while her spindle made a trench
Fantastically in the dust,
Inquired of all her fortunes--just
Her children's ages and their names, 155
And what may be the husband's aims
For each of them. I'd talk this out,
And sit there, for an hour about,
Then kiss her hand once more, and lay
Mine on her head, and go my way. 160

So much for idle wishing--how
It steals the time! To business now.

"ROUND US THE WILD CREATURES"

Round us the wild creatures, overhead the trees,
Underfoot the moss-tracks--life and love with these!
I to wear a fawn-skin, thou to dress in flowers;
All the long lone summer day, that greenwood life of ours!

Rich-pavilioned, rather--still the world without-- 5
Inside--gold-roofed, silk-walled silence round about!
Queen it thou on purple--I, at watch and ward,
Couched beneath the columns, gaze, thy slave, love's guard!

So, for us no world? Let throngs press thee to me!
Up and down amid men, heart by heart fare we! 10
Welcome squalid vesture, harsh voice, hateful face!
God is soul, souls I and thou; with souls should souls have place.

PROLOGUE TO ASOLANDO

"The Poet's age is sad: for why?
In youth, the natural world could show
No common object but his eye
At once involved with alien glow--
His own soul's iris-bow. 5

"And now a flower is just a flower;
Man, bird, beast are but beast, bird, man
Simply themselves, uncinct by dower
Of dyes which, when life's day began,
Round each in glory ran." 10

Friend, did you need an optic glass,
Which were your choice? A lens to drape
In ruby, emerald, chrysopras,
Each object--or reveal its shape
Clear outlined, past escape, 15

The naked very thing?--so clear
That, when you had the chance to gaze,
You found its inmost self appear
T