Robert Browning

“ When the dead man is praised on his journey—
⁠"Bear, bear him along
"With his few faults shut up like dead flowrets;
⁠"Are balm-seeds not here
"To console us? The land has got none such
⁠"As he on the bier⁠
"Oh, would we might keep thee, my brother!"
⁠And then, the glad chaunt
Of the marriage,—first go the young maidens—
⁠Next, she whom we vaunt
As the beauty, the pride of our dwelling:
⁠And then, the great march
When man runs to man to assist him
⁠And buttress an arch
Nought can break . . who shall harm them, our brothers? ”

“ Deeds will be done,—while he boasts his quiescence,
Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire:
Blot out his name, then,—record one lost soul more,
One task unaccepted, one footpath untrod,
One more devils'-triumph and sorrow to angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!
Life's night begins: let him never come back to us! ”

“ And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back
For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track;
And one eye's black intelligence,—ever that glance
O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance! ”

“ Or Rapture drooped the eyes as when her brood
Pull down the nesting dove's heart to its place,
Or Confidence lit swift the forehead up,
And locked the mouth fast, like a castle braved,—
Men, women, children, hath it spilt, my cup? ”

“ Reach land and explore
On the largest, the strange square black turret
With never a door—
Just a loop to admit the quick lizards;
—To stand there and hear
The birds' quiet singing, that tells us
What life is, so clear ”

“ A something more black than the blackness
⁠—The vast, the upright
Main-prop which sustains the pavilion,—
⁠And slow into sight
Grew a figure, gigantic, against it,
⁠And blackest of all;—
Then a sunbeam, that burst thro' the tent-roof,
⁠Showed Saul. ”

“ They moulder on the damp wall's travertine,
'Mid echoes the light footstep never woke.
So, die, my pictures; surely, gently die!
Oh youth men praise so, holds their praise its worth?
Blown harshly, keeps the trump its golden cry?
Tastes sweet the water with such specks of earth? ”

“ I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all Three;
"Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
"Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through;
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest,
And into the midnight we galloped abreast.
II.
Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace
Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;
I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight,
Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right,
Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit,
Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit. ”

“ In blood thro' these two hands: and next,
—Nor much for that am I perplexed—
Charles, perjured traitor, for his part,
Should die slow of a broken heart
Under his new employers—last
—Ah, there, what should one wish? For fast
Do I grow old and out of strength ”

“ Are turning wise: while part opine
"Freedom grows License," part suspect
"Haste breeds Delay," and recollect
They always said such premature
Beginnings never could endure:
So, with a sullen "All's for best,"
The land seems settling to its rest. ”

“ One day more bursts them open fully
—You know the red turns gray.
III.
To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?
May I take your hand in mine?
Mere friends are we,—well, friends the merest
Keep much that I'll resign ”