Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/904

 ROBERT BROWNING

730 The Laboratory

[ANCIEN REGIME] i

NOW that I, tying thy glass mask tightly, May gaze thro' these faint smokes curling whitely, As thou pliest thy trade in this devil Vsmithy Which is the poison to poison her, prithee^

II

He is with her; and they krtow that I know Where they are, what they do. they believe my tears flow While they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear Empty church, to pray God in, for them 1 I am here.

in

Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste, Pound at thy powder, I am not in haste! Better sit thus, and observe thy strange things, Than go where men wait me and dance at the King's.

��That in the mortar you call it a gum?

Ah, the brave tree whence such gold oozings come!

And yonder soft phial, the exquisite blue,

Sure to taste sweetly, is that poison too?

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Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures, What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures' To carry pure death in an earring, a casket, A signet, a fan-mount, a filligree-basket!

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