The Poetical Works of Robert Browning; King Victor and King Charles. Dramatic Lyrics. the Return of the Druses. 1872 Volume 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ...Death was past, life not come: so he waited. Awhile his right hand Held the brow, helped the eyes left too vacant forthwith to remand To their place what new objects should enter: 't was Saul as before. I looked up and dared gaze at those eyes, nor was hurt any more Than by slow pallid sunsets in autumn, ye watch from the shore, At their sad level gaze o'er the ocean--a sun's slow decline Over hills which, resolved in stern silence, o'erlap and entwine Base with base to knit strength more intensely: so, arm folded arm O'er the chest whose slow heavings subsided. XI. What spell or what charm, (For, awhile there was trouble within me) what next should I urge To sustain him where song had restored him?--Song filled to the verge His cup with the wine of this life, pressing all that it yields Of mere fruitage, the strength and the beauty: beyond, on what fields, Glean a vintage more potent and perfect to brighten the eye And bring blood to the lip, and commend them the cup they put by? He saith, " It is good; " still he drinks not: he lets me praise life, Gives assent, yet would die for his own part. Then fancies grew rife Which had come long ago on the pasture, when round me the sheep Fed in silence--above, the one eagle wheeled slow as in sleep; And I lay in my hollow and mused on the world that might lie 'Neath his ken, though I saw but the strip 'twixt the hill and the sky: And I laughed--" Since my days are ordained to be passed with my flocks, " Let me people at least, with my fancies, the plains and the rocks, " Dream the life I am never to mix with, and image the show " Of mankind as they live in those fashions I hardly shall know " Schemes of life, its best rules and right uses, the courage that gains, " And the prudence that keeps what men...