There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.
I follow my law and fulfil it all duly—and look!
when your doubt runneth high—
North points to the needle!
DOVE
And there my little doves did sit
With feathers softly brown
And glittering eyes that showed their right
To general Nature's deep delight.
The thrustelcok made eek hir lay,
The wode dove upon the spray
She sang ful loude and cleere.
As when the dove returning bore the mark
Of earth restored to the long labouring ark;
The relics of mankind, secure at rest,
Oped every window to receive the guest,
And the fair bearer of the message bless'd.
Listen, sweet Dove, unto my song,
And spread thy golden wings in me;
Hatching my tender heart so long,
Till it get wing, and flie away with Thee.
See how that pair of billing doves
With open murmurs own their loves
And, heedless of censorious eyes,
Pursue their unpolluted joys:
No fears of future want molest
The downy quiet of their nest.
The Dove,
On silver pinions, winged her peaceful way.
Ut solet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas.
As the hawk is wont to pursue the trembling doves.
Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly,
When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky;
Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves,
When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves.
Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would
I fly away, and be at rest.
Anon, as patient as the female dove,
When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
His silence will sit drooping.
And oft I heard the tender dove
In firry woodlands making moan.
I heard a Stock-dove sing or say
His homely tale, this very day;
His voice was buried among trees,
Yet to be come at by the breeze:
He did not cease; but cooed—and cooed:
And somewhat pensively he wooed:
He sang of love, with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;
Of serious faith, and inward glee;
That was the song,—the song for me!
DOVE (RIVER)
Oh, my beloved nymph, fair Dove,
Princess of rivers, how I love
Upon thy flowery banks to lie,
And view thy silver stream,
When gUded by a summer's beam!
And in it all thy wanton fry,
Playing at liberty;
And with my angle, upon them
The all of treachery
I ever learned, industriously to try!
DREAMS
When to soft Sleep we give ourselves away,
And in a dream as in a fairy bark
Drift on and on through the enchanted dark
To purple daybreak—little thought we pay
To that sweet bitter world we know by day.
Sweet sleep be with us, one and all!
And if upon its stillness fall
The visions of a busy brain,
We'll have our pleasure o'er again,
To warm the heart, to charm the sight,
Gay dreams to all! good night, good night.
If there were dreams to sell,
Merry and sad to tell,
And the crier rung his bell,
What would you buy?
"Come to me, darling; I'm lonely without thee;
Daytime and nighttime I'm dreaming about thee."
