How long wilt stand outside and cower? Come straight within, beloved guest. The winds are fierce this wintry hour: Come, stay awhile with me and rest. You wander begging shelter vainly A weary time from door to door; I see what you have suffered plainly: Come, rest with me and stray no more! And nestle by me, trusting-hearted; Lay in my loving hands your head: Then back shall come your peace departed, Through the world's baseness long since fled; And deep from out your heart upspringing, Love's downy wings will soar to view, The darling smiles like magic bringing Around your gloomy lips anew. Come, rest: myself will here detain you. So long as pulse of mine shall beat; Nor shall my heart grow cold and pain you, Till carried to your last retreat. You gaze at me in doubting fashion, Before the offered rapture dumb; Tears and still tears your sole expression: Bedew my bosom with them -- come! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STANZAS IN THE MEMORY OF EDWARD QUILLINAN, ESQ. by MATTHEW ARNOLD LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY - 1918 by JOHN KENDRICK BANGS GIFTS AND GIVERS by BERTON BRALEY THE LAY OF THE BROWN ROSARY by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THERE IS NO DEATH by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON GERTRUDE OF WYOMING; OR, THE PENNSYLVANIAN COTTAGE: 3 by THOMAS CAMPBELL |