Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: STANZAS. Because, from all that round Thee move, Planets of Beauty, Strength, and Grace, I am elected to Thy love, And have my home in Thy embrace, I wonder all men do not see The crown that Thou hast set on me. Because, when prostrate at Thy feet, Thou didst emparadise my pain, ? Because Thy heart on mine has beat, Thy head within my hands has lain, I am transfigured, by that sign, Into a being like to Thine. The mirror from its glossy plain Receiving still returns the light, And being generous of its gain, Augments the very solar might: What unreflected light would be, Is just Thy spirit without me. Thou art the flame, whose rising spire In the dark air sublimely sways, And I the tempest that swift fire Gathers at first and then obeys: All that was Thine ere we were wed Have I by right inherited. Is life a stream ? Then from Thy hair One rosebud on the current fell, And straight it turned to crystal there, As adamant immoveable: Its steadfast place shall know no more The sense of after and before. Is life a plant ? The King of years To mine nor good nor ill can bring;? Mine grows no more; no more it fears Even the brushing of his wing: With sheathed scythe I see him go, ? I have no flowers that he can mow. AN ANSWER. All fair things have soft approaches, Quiet steps are still the sure; It were hard to point aright At what instant morning light Shy and solemn-paced encroaches On the desolate obscure;? Who can read the growth of flowers Syllable by syllable ? Who has sight or ear to tell, Or by moments or by hours, At what rate the sappy tree, Full of life, and life in spring, Every sleekest limb embosses With the buds its vigor glosses, ? At what rate the buds with glee Burst, ...