I yield; you have conquered.’
‘Stay,’ I answered him;
‘I’ve something for your hearing, also. I
Have failed too.’
‘You!’ he said, ‘you’re very great:
The sadness of your greatness fits you well:
As if the plume upon a hero’s casque
Should nod a shadow upon his victor face.’
I took him up austerely,—’You have read
My book but not my heart; for recollect,
‘Tis writ in Sanscrit, which you bungle at.
I’ve surely failed, I know; if failure means
To look back sadly on work gladly done,—
To wander on my mountains of Delight,
So called, (I can remember a friend’s words
As well as you, sir,) weary and in want
Of even a sheep-path, thinking bitterly . .
Well, well! no matter. I but say so much,
To keep you, Romney Leigh, from saying more,
And let you feel I am not so high indeed,
That I can bear to have you at my foot,—
Or safe, that I can help you. That June-day,
Too deeply sunk in craterous sunsets now
For you or me to dig it up alive;
To pluck it out all bleeding with spent flame
At the roots, before those moralising stars
We have got instead,—that poor lost day, you said
Some words as truthful as the thing of mine
You care to keep in memory: and I hold
