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And I have given thee a crown that none can take

away.'

But how this is, sweet maid, I know not, and I cannot know;

I ponder, and I cannot ponder: yet I live and love!"

The Daughter of Beauty wiped her pitying tears with her white veil,

And said: "Alas! I knew not this, and therefore did I weep.

That God would love a worm I knew, and punish the evil foot

That wilful bruised its helpless form; but that he cherished it

With milk and oil I never knew, and therefore did

I weep.

And I complained in the mild air, because I fade

away,

And lay me down in thy cold bed, and leave my shining lot."

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Queen of the vales," the matron Clay answered, "I heard thy sighs,

And all thy moans flew o'er my roof, but I have called them down.

Wilt thou, O queen, enter my house? 'Tis given thee to enter,

And to return: fear nothing, enter with thy virgin feet."

IV.

The eternal gates' terrific Porter lifted the northern

bar;

The entered in, and saw the secrets of the land

unknown.

She saw the couches of the dead, and where the fibrous root

Of every heart on earth infixes deep its restless twists:

A land of sorrows and of tears, where never smile

was seen.

She wandered in the land of clouds, through valleys dark, listening

Dolours and lamentations, wailing oft beside a dewy grave.

She stood in silence, listening to the voices of the

ground,

Till to her own grave-plot she came, and there she

sat down,

And heard this voice of sorrow breathed from the hollow pit.

"Why cannot the ear be closed to its own destruction?

Or the glistening eye to the poison of a smile? Why are eyelids stored with arrows ready drawn,

Where a thousand fighting-men in ambush lie, Or an eye of gifts and graces showering fruits and coined gold?

Why a tongue impressed with honey from every wind?

Why an ear, a whirlpool fierce to draw creations

in?

Why a nostril wide inhailing terror, trembling, and affright?

Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy?

Why a little curtain of flesh on the bed of our desire?"

The Virgin started from her seat, and with a shriek

Fled back unhindered till she came into the vales

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LATER POEMS.

THE CRYSTAL CABINET.

HE maiden caught me in the wild,

THE

Where I was dancing merrily ;

She put me into her cabinet,

And locked me up with a golden key.

This cabinet is formed of gold,

And pearl and crystal shining bright, And within it opens into a world And a little lovely moony night.

Another England there I saw,

Another London with its Tower, Another Thames and other hills,

And another pleasant Surrey bower.

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