The churl in spirit, howe'er he veil
His want in forms for fashion's sake,
Will let his coltish nature break
At seasons through the gilded pale :

For who can always act? but he,

To whom a thousand memories call, Not being less but more than all The gentleness he seemed to be,

Best seemed the thing he was, and joined Each office of the social hour

To noble manners, as the flower And native growth of noble mind;

Nor ever narrowness or spite,
Or villain fancy fleeting by,
Drew in the expression of an eye,
Where God and Nature met in light,

And thus he bore without abuse

The grand old name of gentleman,
Defamed by every charlatan,

And soiled with all ignoble use.

CXI.

HIGH wisdom holds my wisdom less,
That I, who gaze with temperate eyes
On glorious insufficiencies,

Set light by narrower perfectness.

But thou, that fillest all the room
Of all my love, art reason why
I seem to cast a careless eye
On souls, the lesser lords of doom.

For what wert thou? some novel power
Sprang up forever at a touch,

And hope could never hope too much, In watching thee from hour to hour,

Large elements in order brought,

And tracts of calm from tempest made, And world-wide fluctuation swayed In vassal tides that followed thought.

Yet how much wisdom sleeps with thee
Which not alone had guided me,

But served the seasons that may rise;

For can I doubt who knew thee keen
In intellect, with force and skill
To strive, to fashion, to fulfil,—

I doubt not what thou wouldst have been:

A life in civic action warm,

A soul on highest mission sent,
A potent voice of Parliament,

A pillar steadfast in the storm,

Should licensed boldness gather force,
Becoming, when the time has birth,
A lever to uplift the earth

And roll it in another course,

With thousand shocks that come and go,
With agonies, with energies,

With overthrowings, and with cries,
And undulations to and fro.

CXIII.

Wнo loves not Knowledge?

Who shall rail

Against her beauty? May she mix
With men and prosper! Who shall fix

Her pillars? Let her work prevail.

But on her forehead sits a fire:

She sets her forward countenance And leaps into the future chance, Submitting all things to desire.

Half-grown as yet, a child, and vain,

She cannot fight the fear of death. What is she, cut from love and faith, But some wild Pallas from the brain

Of Demons? fiery-hot to burst

All barriers in her onward race For power. Let her know her place, She is the second, not the first.

A higher hand must make her mild,
If all be not in vain; and guide
Her footsteps, moving side by side
With wisdom, like the younger child;

For she is earthly of the mind,

But wisdom heavenly of the soul.
O friend, who camest to thy goal

So early, leaving me behind,

I would the great world grew like thee
Who grewest not alone in power

And knowledge, but by year and hour In reverence and in charity.

CXIV.

Now fades the last long streak of snow, Now burgeons every maze of quick About the flowering squares, and thick By ashen roots the violets blow.

Now rings the woodland loud and long,
The distance takes a lovelier hue,
And drowned in yonder living blue
The lark becomes a sightless song.

Now dance the lights on lawn and lea,
The flocks are whiter down the vale,
And milkier every milky sail

On winding stream or distant sea;

Where now the seamew pipes, or dives
In yonder greening gleam, and fly
The happy birds, that change their sky
To build and brood; that live their lives

From land to land; and in my breast
Spring wakens too; and my regret
Becomes an April violet,

And buds and blossoms like the rest.

CXV.

Is it, then, regret for buried time

That keenlier in sweet April wakes,

And meets the year, and gives and takes

The colors of the crescent prime ?

Not all; the songs, the stirring air,

The life re-orient out of dust,

Cry through the sense to hearten trust

In that which made the world so fair.

Not all regret; the face will shine
Upon me, while I muse alone;

And that dear voice, I once have known, Still speak to me of me and mine :

Yet less of sorrow lives in me

For days of happy commune dead; Less yearning for the friendship fled, Than some strong bond which is to be.

CXVI.

O DAYS and hours, your work is this,
To hold me from my proper place,
A little while from his embrace,

For fuller gain of after bliss:

That out of distance might ensue

Desire of nearness doubly sweet;
And unto meeting, when we meet,

Delight a hundredfold accrue,

For every grain of sand that runs,

And every span of shade that steals, And every kiss of toothed wheels, And all the courses of the suns.

CXVII.

CONTEMPLATE all this work of Time,
The giant laboring in his youth;
Nor dream of human love and truth,
As dying Nature's earth and lime;

But trust that those we call the dead
Are breathers of an ampler day
Forever nobler ends. They say,
The solid earth whereon we tread