• Such natural debts of love our Oxford knows,
    So many ancient dues undesecrate,
    I marvel how the landmark of a hate
    For witness unto future time she chose;
    How out of her corroborate ranks arose
    The three, in great denial only great,
    For Art’s enshrining!… Thus, averted straight,
    My soul to seek a holier captain goes:
    That sweet...

  • April, 1860
    goethe in Weimar sleeps, and Greece,
    Long since, saw Byron’s struggle cease.
    But one such death remained to come;
    The last poetic voice is dumb—
    We stand to-day by Wordsworth’s tomb.

    When Byron’s eyes were shut in death,
    We bowed our head and held our breath.
    He taught us little; but our soul
    Had felt him like...