COME, rouse thee, dearest! -- 't is not well To let the spirit brood Thus darkly o'er the cares that swell Life's current to a flood. As brooks, and torrents, rivers, all, Increase the gulf in which they fall, Such thoughts, by gathering up the rills Of lesser griefs, spread real ills, And with their gloomy shades conceal The landmarks Hope would else reveal. Come, rouse thee, now -- I know thy mind, And would its strength awaken; Proud, gifted, noble, ardent, kind -- Strange thou shouldst be thus shaken! But rouse afresh each energy, And be what Heaven intended thee; Throw from thy thoughts this wearying weight. And prove thy spirit firmly great: I would not see thee bend below The angry storms of earthly woe. Full well I know the generous soul Which warms thee into life, Each spring which can its powers control, Familiar to thy Wife -- For deem'st thou she had stoop'd to bind Her fate unto a common mind? The eagle-like ambition, nursed From childhood in her heart, had first Consumed, with its Promethean flame, The shrine -- than sunk her so to shame. Then rouse thee, dearest, from the dream That fetters now thy powers: Shake off this gloom -- Hope sheds a beam To gild each cloud which lowers; And though at present seems so far The wished-for goal -- a guiding star, With peaceful ray, would light thee on, Until its utmost bounds be won: That quenchless ray thou 'lt ever prove, In fond, undying, Wedded Love. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DE PROFUNDIS by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING LAUS INFANTIUM by WILLIAM CANTON THE HABIT OF PERFECTION by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS A PRAYER, LIVING AND DYING by AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY ON A VOLUME OF ANONYNOUS POEMS ENTITLED A MASQUE OF POETS by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH REALISM by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 9. WHEN by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |