Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-08-14
POETRY.
THE LOVERS TALE.
Passages from Tennyson's New
POem. CrE-
Ye ask me, friends,

Ye ask me, friends,
When began to love. How should tell you?
Or from the after fulness of my heart
Flow back again into my slender spring 1
And first OF love, tho every turn an depth
Between is clearer in my life than all y
Its present flow. Ye know not what ye ask. |
How should the broad and open flower tell
What sort of bud it was when, prest together |
In IFS green sheath, close lapt In shken folds, |
q 1t seem'd 10 keep its sweetness to itseli,
Yet was not the less sweet for that 1t seemdf
For young Life knows not when young Life
was born,
But nkes it allior granted: neither Love, |
Warm in the heart, ms cradle, can remember
Love in the womb, but resteth satisfied,
Looking on her that brought him TO the light:
Or as men know not when they fall asleep
Into delicious dreams, our other life, |
So known l not when began to love.
This is my sum of knowledge-that my love
Grew with my yself--say rather, was my growth,
Myinward sap, the hold haveon earth.
Aiy outward clrcliDg air wherewith breathe,
Which yet upholds my life, and evermore
Is to me daily life and daily death:
For how should have lived and not have
loved? n On
Can We take off the sweetness from the flower,
The color and the sweetness from the rose,
And place them BY themselves; OF set apart
Their motions and their brightness from the
stars,
Aud then point out the flower or the starr
Or build a wall betwixt my life and love,
And tell me where am? 'Pis even thus:
Insthat live love; because love
l live; whate'erjs fountain tothe one zuEio 4
LIS fonntaln to the ether: and whene'er eTa1I
Our God unknits the riddle of the one, saD
There g no shade or fold of mystery .,,-.-- !
bwstaing the other. :
.RGoinsI When we had reached 2
The grassy platform on seTne hill, stoopd,
l gather'd the wild herbs, and for her brows
And mine made garlands of the seifsame
which she took smiling, and with my work
Crown'd her clear forehead. Once or twice
II she told meL -A-El- Ff. =
(For I remember all thingsl toilet grow
} The flowers that run poison in their veins.
She said, ssThe evil flourish in the world.
Then playfully she gave herself the lie
Nothing in nature is unbeautitul;
So, brother, pluck, and spare not 80 So /
-. "a woVeis.4-ai s.fs-sr-sl i-.iaya ~.
:. Ev'n the dull-blOoded poppy stem, '.whOse
flower, .t..-.s.stI
Hued with the scarlet of fierce sunrise,
Like to the wild youth of an evil prince, ~
. Is without sweetness, but wh0 crowns him
.h self -r.s--
Above the secret poisons his heart
In his old age" A graceful thought OF hers
Grav'n on my fancy! And oh, how like a
r.-t nymph, r.ts.u t.- .srrH-a-
A stately mountain nymph, she lookd! how
native
Unto the hills she trod onl While gsZed,
My coronal slowly disentwined itself ~
ell A,4- both. xr~l1ff n rroZ
NV spirit leap'd as with those thrills of bliss
That strike across the soul in prayer, and show
40 ms .lsoI pggL -. 1nr.f II -
That we are surely heard. Methought light
Burst from the garland had wov'n, and stood
d, "A solid glory on her bright black hair;
A light methought broke from her dark, dark
eyes, --.
And shot itself ints the singing winds;
r A myst ic light fiash'd ev'n from her white
robe -ai
As from glass in the sun, and fell about
, My footsteps on the mountains.
r. The path was perilous, loosely strewn with
- crags:
We mounted slowly; yet to both there came
The Joy of life in steepness overcome,
And victories of ascent, and looking down
On all that had looked dowd on u.s. and joy
a. In breathing nearer heaven; and Joy TO me,
High over all the azure circled earth,
To breath with her as if in heaven itself;
And more than joy that l to her became
Her guardian and her angel, raising her
% Still higher, past all peril, until she saw, ai
- Beneath her feet the region far away, t-s
= = Beyond the nearest mountains bosky brows,
% Burst into open prospect-beath and hill,
ssn And hollow lined and wooded to the lips,
And steep-down walls of battlemented rock
D., Gilded With broom, or shatter'd into spires,
And glory of broad waters interfused,
= Whence rose as it were, breath and steam Of
80 l. gold, -.la- - r-tnsea1
And over all the great wood rioting
And climbing, streak'd or starr'd at intervals
With falling brook or blasSom'd husband
last,
Framing the mighty landscape to the west,
A purple range of mountain cones, between
Whose interspaces gush'd in binding bursts
The incorporate blaze OF sun and sea. +
= 80. At length
Descending from the point and standing botl
There on the tremulous bridge, that from be-
H., Meath tssI aislt snij
Had seemd a gossamer ilament up in air,
We paused amid the splendor. All the ives
e. And cen unto the middle south was ribbd
And barr'd with bloom on bloom. The SUI
below, al,s,
Held for space 'twixt cloud and wave
1l.,i,L shower'd down A'
H Rays of mighty circle, weaving over
That various wilderness tissue of light
5 Unparalld. On the other side, the moon,
-. Half melted into thin blue air, stood still,
And pale and fibrous as wither'd leaf,
Nor yet endured in presence of His eyes
To Undue his Fustre; most unlover-like,
Since in his absence full of light and joy,
And giving light to others. But this most,
Next TO her presence whom 1loved so well,
Spoke loudly even into my inmost heart
..--. AS to my outward hearing; the loud stream,
Forth issuing from his portals in the crag
"a visible link unto the home of my heart),
Ran amber toward the west, and nigh the Sc
--- Parting my own loved mountains was re
ceived, .as9<
Shorn of its strength, into the sympathy
OF that small bay, which out to open main
Glow'd intermingling close beneath the sun:
Spirit of Lovel that little hour was bound go
Shut ia from Time, and dedicate to thee. '