Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1000

 CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI

795 Aloof

THE irresponsive silence of the land, The irresponsive sounding of the sea, Speak both one message of one sense to me:

Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand

Thou too aloof, bound with the flawless band Of inner solitude; we bind not thee, But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free ?

What heart shall touch thy heart ? What hand thy hand?

And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek, And sometimes I remember days of old

When fellowship seem'd not so far to seek,

And all the world and I seem'd much less cold, And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,

And hope felt strong, and life itself not weak.

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��796 Rest

EARTH, lie heavily upon her eyes? Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, Earth; Lie close around her; leave no room for mirth With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs. She hath no questions, she hath no replies, Hush'd in and curtain'd with a blessed dearth Of all that irk'd her from the hour of birth , With stillness that is almost Paradise. Darkness more clear than noonday holdeth her,

Silence more musical than any song; Even her very heart has ceased to stir: Until the morning of Eternity Her rest shall not begin nor end, but be;

And when she wakes she will not think it long.

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