122.-PASSAGES FROM "IN MEMORIAM"

II

1.-(CVI)

RING out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light :
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,

The faithless coldness of the times;

Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

2. (CXV)

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.

3.—(CXXIV)

That which we dare invoke to bless ;

Our dearest faith; our ghastliest doubt; He, They, One, All; within, without; The Power in darkness whom we guess;

I found Him not in world or sun,

Or eagle's wing, or insect's eye;
Nor through the questions men may try,

The petty cobwebs we have spun :

If e'er when faith had fallen asleep,

I heard a voice "believe no more," And heard an ever-breaking shore That tumbled in the Godless deep;

A warmth within the breast would melt
The freezing reason's colder part,
And like a man in wrath the heart
Stood up and answered "I have felt."

No, like a child in doubt and fear;

But that blind clamour made me wise;
Then was I as a child that cries,

But, crying, knows his father near;

And what I am beheld again

What is, and no man understands; And out of darkness came the hands That reach through nature, moulding men.

4. (CXXVI)

Love is and was my Lord and King,
And in his presence I attend

To hear the tidings of my friend
Which every hour his couriers bring.

Love is and was my King and Lord,

And will be, though as yet I keep Within his court on earth, and sleep Encompassed by his faithful guard,

And hear at times a sentinel

Who moves about from place to place,
And whispers to the worlds of space,

In the deep night, that all is well.

TENNYSON

123. UNEXPRESSED

IF all the pens that ever poets held

Had fed the feeling of their master's thoughts,
And every sweetness that inspired their hearts,
Their minds, and muses, on admirèd themes;
If all the heavenly quintessence they 'still
From their immortal flowers of poesy,
Wherein as in a mirror we perceive
The highest reaches of a human wit;

If these had made one poem's period,
And all combined in beauty's worthiness,

Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least
Which into words no virtue can digest.

C. MARLOWE

124.-MEDITATION OF

LORD STRAFFORD IN THE TOWER

Go, empty joys,
With all your noise,

And leave me here alone
In sad sweet silence to bemoan
The fickle worldly height
Whose danger none can see aright
Whilst your false splendours dim the sight.

Go, and ensnare

With your trim ware
Some other worldly wight,

And cheat him with your flattering light;
Rain on his head a shower

Of honour, greatness, wealth, and power :
Then snatch it from him in an hour.

Fill his big mind

With gallant wind
Of insolent applause ;

Let him not fear the curbing laws,

Nor king nor people's frown,

But dream of something like a crown,

Then, climbing upwards, tumble down.