Page:Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, 1846).djvu/71

Rh This garden, in a city-heart,

Lay still as houseless wild,

Though many-windowed mansion fronts

Were round it closely piled;

But thick their walls, and those within

Lived lives by noise unstirred;

Like wafting of an angel's wing,

Time's flight by them was heard.

Some soft piano-notes alone

Were sweet as faintly given,

Where ladies, doubtless, cheered the hearth

With song, that winter-even.

The city's many-mingled sounds

Rose like the hum of ocean;

They rather lulled the heart than roused

Its pulse to faster motion.

Gilbert has paced the single walk

An hour, yet is not weary;

And, though it be a winter night,

He feels nor cold nor dreary.

The prime of life is in his veins,

And sends his blood fast flowing,

And Fancy's fervour warms the thoughts

Now in his bosom glowing.

Those thoughts recur to early love,

Or what he love would name,