How delicious is the winning
Of a kiss at love’s beginning,
When two mutual hearts are sighing
For the knot there ’s no untying!
Yet remember, midst your wooing,
Love has bliss, but love has ruing;
Other smiles may make you fickle,
Tears for other charms may trickle.
Love he comes, Love he tarries,
Just as fate or...
From “Don Juan,” Canto I.
’T IS sweet to hear,
At midnight on the blue and moonlit deep,
The song and oar of Adria’s gondolier,
By distance mellowed, o’er the waters sweep;
’T is sweet to see the evening star appear;
’T is sweet to listen as the night-winds creep
From leaf to leaf; ’t is sweet to view on high...
First time he kissed me, he but only kissed
The fingers of this hand wherewith I write;
And, ever since, it grew more clean and white,
Slow to world-greetings, quick with its “O list!”
When the angels speak. A ring of amethyst
I could not wear here, plainer to my sight
Than that first kiss. The second passed in height
The first, and...
The Snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.
Every pine and fir and hemlock
Wore ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm-tree
Was ridged inch deep with pearl.
From sheds new-roofed with Carrara
Came...
Jest rain and snow! and rain again!
And dribble! drip! and blow!
Then snow! and thaw! and slush! and then—
Some more rain and snow!
This morning I was ’most afeard
To wake up—when, I jing!
I seen the sun shine out and heerd
The first blue-bird of Spring!—
Mother she ’d raised the winder some;—
And in acrost the...
Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:...
"Hinc pallidorum longa morborum cohors
Turpisque egestas sequitur," &c.
Finding is the first Act
The second, loss,
Third, Expedition for
The "Golden Fleece"
Fourth, no Discovery —
Fifth, no Crew —
Finally, no Golden Fleece —
Jason — sham — too.
"Chez cette race nouvelle
Où j'aurai quelque crédit,
Vous ne passerez pas pour belle
Qu'autant que je l'aurai dit.
Pensez-y, belle Marquise;
Quoiqu'un grison fasse effroi,...
Had I known that the first was the last
I should have kept it longer.
Had I known that the last was the first
I should have drunk it stronger.
Cup, it was your fault,
Lip was not the liar.
No, lip, it was yours,
Bliss was most to blame.
