Page:Ambarvalia - Clough (1849).djvu/23

 Come back again, my olden heart!— Alas, I called not then for thee; I called for Courage, and apart From Pride if Courage could not be, Then welcome, Pride! and I shall find In thee a power to lift the mind This low and grovelling joy above— 'Tis but the proud can truly love.

Come back again, my olden heart!— With incrustations of the years Uncased as yet,—as then thou wert, Full-filled with shame and coward fears: Wherewith, amidst a jostling throng Of deeds, that each and all were wrong, The doubting soul, from day to day, Uneasy paralytic lay.

Come back again, my olden heart! I said, Perceptions contradict, Convictions come, anon depart, And but themselves as false convict. Assumptions hasty, crude, and vain, Full oft to use will Science deign; The corks the novice plies to-day The swimmer soon shall cast away.