Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/801

 HARTLEY COLERIDGE

Love was her guardian Angel here, But Love to Death resign'd her;

Tho' Love was kind, why should we fear But holy Death is kinder?

654 Friendship

WHEN we were idlers with the loitering rills, The need of human love we little noted:

Our love was nature; and the peace that floated On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills, To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills:

One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted,

That, wisely doting, ask'd not why it doted, And ours the unknown joy, which knowing kills. But now I find how dear thou wert to me;

That man is more than half of nature's treasure, Of that fair beauty which no eye can see,

Of that sweet music which no ear can measure;

And now the streams may sing for others' pleasure, The hills sleep on in their eternity.

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��THOMAS HOOD 655 Autumn

SAW old Autumn in the misty morn Stand shadowless like Silence, listening To silence, for no lonely bird would sing Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn, Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn; Shaking his languid locks all dewy bright With tangled gossamer that fell by night, Pearling his coronet of golden corn.

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