Straightway Virginius led the maid a little space aside,
To where the reeking shambles stood, piled up with horn and hide,
Close to yon low dark archway, where, in a crimson flood,
Leaps down to the great sewer the gurgling stream of blood.
Hard by, a flesher on a block had laid his whittle down:
...
Least Bee that brew —
A Honey's Weight
Content Her smallest fraction help
The Amber Quantity —
Least Rivers — docile to some sea.
My Caspian — thee.
Left in immortal Youth
On that low Plain
That hath nor Retrospection
Nor Again —
Ransomed from years —
Sequestered from Decay
Canceled like Dawn
In comprehensive Day —
When last I died, and, dear, I die
As often as from thee I go,
Though it be but an hour ago
—And lovers' hours be full eternity—
I can remember yet, that I
Something did say, and something did bestow;
Though I be dead, which sent me, I might be
Mine own executor, and legacy.
...
A knave and a fool on an island were cast;
Their ship had gone down in the hurricane's blast.
On the island they met, while hungry and wet,
A wise man who aid to them gave;
They were given a home, with the freedom to roam,
Bounded by naught but the wave.
The fool, though demented, was easily...
Lest any doubt that we are glad that they were born Today
Whose having lived is held by us in noble Holiday
Without the date, like Consciousness or Immortality —
Lest they should come — is all my fear
When sweet incarcerated here