Robert Browning

“ My whole life long I learned to love.
This hour my utmost art I prove
And speak my passion—heaven or hell?
She will not give me heaven? 'Tis well!
Lose who may—I still can say,
Those who win heaven, blest are they! ”

“ And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrop—sat the bent spray's edge—
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower! ”

“ And what you would do with me, in fine,
⁠In the new life come in the old one's stead.
VI.
I have lived (I shall say) so much since then,
⁠Given up myself so many times,
Gained me the gains of various men,
⁠Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;
Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,
⁠Either I missed or itself missed me:
And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope!
⁠What is the issue ? let us see! ”