Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/413

THE THREAD OF LIFE.

1.

THE irresponsive silence of the land,
 The irresponsive sounding of the sea,
 Speak both one message of one sense to me:—
Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand
Thou too aloof bound with the flawless band
 Of inner solitude; we bind not thee;
 But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free?
What heart shall touch thy heart? what hand thy hand?—
And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek,
 And sometimes I remember days of old
When fellowship seemed not so far to seek
 And all the world and I seemed much less cold,
 And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,
And hope felt strong and life itself not weak,

2.

Thus am I mine own prison. Everything
 Around me free and sunny and at ease:
 Or if in shadow, in a shade of trees
Which the sun kisses, where the gay birds sing
And where all winds make various murmuring;