Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VI. Whenas I knew not clearly, how to think, Malise ! about thee dead: God showed the way. Thine holy soul among soft fires can drink The dew of all the prayers, that I can pray. Prayers for thy sake shall pierce thy prison gate; Prayers to the Mother of Misericord: Mary, the mighty, the immaculate; Mary, whose soul welcomed the appointed sword. Malise ! thy dear face from my wall looks down : The Crucifix above its beauty lies. Now, while I look and long, I see a crown Bright on thy brow, and heaven within thine eyes. 1892. THE PRECEPT OF SILENCE. I Know you : solitary griefs, Desolate passions, aching hours! I know you : tremulous beliefs, Agonized hopes, and ashen flowers! The winds are sometimes sad to me; The starry spaces, full of fear: Mine is the sorrow on the sea, And mine the sigh of places drear. Some players upon plaintive strings Publish their wistfulness abroad: I have not spoken of these things, Save to one man, and unto God. 1893. HILL AND VALE. Not on the river plains Wilt thou breathe loving air, O mountain spirit fine ! Here the calm soul maintains Calm : but no joy like thine, On hill-tops bleak and bare, Whose breath is fierce and rare. Were beauty all thy need, Here were an haunt for thee. The broad laborious weald, An eye's delight indeed, Spreads from rich field to field; And full streams wander free Under the alder tree. Throw thee upon the grass, The daisied grass, and gaze Far to the warm blue mist: Feel, how the soft hours pass Over, before they wist, Into whole day: and days Dream on in sunny haze. Each old, sweet, country scent Comes, as old music might Upon thee: old, sweet sounds Go, as they ever went, Over the red corn grounds : Still sweeping scythes delight Charmed hearing and charmed...