Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I.

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Title: Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I.
Author: Jean Ingelow
Release Date: August 19, 2004 [EBook #13223]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS BY
JEAN INGELOW, I. ***
Produced by Juliet Sutherland and PG Distributed Proofreaders
POEMS
BY
JEAN INGELOW
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.
BOSTON
ROBERTS BROTHERS
1896
AUTHOR'S COMPLETE EDITION

DEDICATION
TO
GEORGE KILGOUR INGELOW
YOUR LOVING SISTER
OFFERS YOU THESE POEMS, PARTLY AS
AN EXPRESSION OF HER AFFECTION, PARTLY FOR THE
PLEASURE OF CONNECTING HER EFFORTS
WITH YOUR NAME
KENSINGTON: June, 1863
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
DIVIDED
HONORS.--PART I.
HONORS.--PART II.

REQUIESCAT IN PACE
SUPPER AT THE MILL
SCHOLAR
AND CARPENTER
THE STAR'S MONUMENT
A DEAD
YEAR
REFLECTIONS
THE LETTER L
THE HIGH TIDE
ON THE COAST OF LINCOLNSHIRE (1571)
AFTERNOON
AT A PARSONAGE
SONGS OF SEVEN
A COTTAGE IN A
CHINE
PERSEPHONE
A SEA SONG
BROTHERS, AND A
SERMON
A WEDDING SONG
THE FOUR BRIDGES
A
MOTHER SHOWING THE PORTRAIT OF HER CHILD

STRIFE AND PEACE
THE DREAMS THAT CAME TRUE
SONGS ON THE VOICES OF BIRDS.

INTRODUCTION.--CHILD AND BOATMAN
THE
NIGHTINGALE HEARD BY THE UNSATISFIED HEART

SAND MARTINS
A POET IN HIS YOUTH AND THE

CUCKOO-BIRD
A RAVEN IN A WHITE CHINE
THE
WARBLING OF BLACKBIRDS
SEA-MEWS IN
WINTER-TIME
LAURANCE
SONGS OF THE NIGHT WATCHES.

INTRODUCTORY.--EVENING
THE FIRST WATCH.--TIRED

THE MIDDLE WATCH
THE MORNING WATCH

CONCLUDING.--EARLY DAWN
CONTRASTED SONGS.
SAILING BEYOND SEAS

REMONSTRANCE
SONG FOR THE NIGHT OF CHRIST'S
RESURRECTION
SONG OF MARGARET
SONG OF THE
GOING AWAY
A LILY AND A LUTE
GLADYS AND HER ISLAND
SONGS WITH PRELUDES.
WEDLOCK
REGRET

LAMENTATION
DOMINION
FRIENDSHIP
WINSTANLEY
DIVIDED.
I.
An empty sky, a world of heather,
Purple of foxglove, yellow of
broom;
We two among them wading together,
Shaking out honey,
treading perfume.
Crowds of bees are giddy with clover,
Crowds of grasshoppers skip
at our feet,
Crowds of larks at their matins hang over,
Thanking the
Lord for a life so sweet.
Flusheth the rise with her purple favor,
Gloweth the cleft with her

golden ring,
'Twixt the two brown butterflies waver,
Lightly settle,
and sleepily swing.
We two walk till the purple dieth
And short dry grass under foot is
brown.
But one little streak at a distance lieth
Green like a ribbon to
prank the down.
II.
Over the grass we stepped unto it,
And God He knoweth how blithe
we were!
Never a voice to bid us eschew it:
Hey the green ribbon
that showed so fair!
Hey the green ribbon! we kneeled beside it,
We parted the grasses
dewy and sheen;
Drop over drop there filtered and slided
A tiny
bright beck that trickled between.
Tinkle, tinkle, sweetly it sang to us,
Light was our talk as of faëry
bells--
Faëry wedding-bells faintly rung to us
Down in their
fortunate parallels.
Hand in hand, while the sun peered over,
We lapped the grass on that
youngling spring;
Swept back its rushes, smoothed its clover,
And
said, "Let us follow it westering."
III.
A dappled sky, a world of meadows,
Circling above us the black
rooks fly
Forward, backward; lo, their dark shadows
Flit on the
blossoming tapestry--
Flit on the beck, for her long grass parteth
As hair from a maid's
bright eyes blown back;
And, lo, the sun like a lover darteth
His
flattering smile on her wayward track.
Sing on! we sing in the glorious weather
Till one steps over the tiny

strand,
So narrow, in sooth, that still together
On either brink we go
hand in hand.
The beck grows wider, the hands must sever.
On either margin, our
songs all done,
We move apart, while she singeth ever,
Taking the
course of the stooping sun.
He prays, "Come over"--I may not follow;
I cry, "Return"--but he
cannot come:
We speak, we laugh, but with voices hollow;
Our
hands are hanging, our hearts are numb.
IV.
A breathing sigh, a sigh for answer,
A little talking of outward things

The careless beck is a merry dancer,
Keeping sweet time to the air
she sings.
A little pain when the beck grows wider;
"Cross to me now--for her
wavelets swell."
"I may not cross,"--and the voice beside her

Faintly reacheth, though heeded well.
No backward path; ah! no returning;
No second crossing that ripple's
flow:
"Come to me now, for the west is burning;
Come ere it
darkens;"--"Ah, no! ah, no!"
Then cries of pain, and arms outreaching--
The beck grows wider and
swift and deep:
Passionate words as of one beseeching--
The loud
beck drowns them; we walk, and weep.
V.
A yellow moon in splendor drooping,
A tired queen with her state
oppressed,
Low by rushes and swordgrass stooping,
Lies she soft
on the waves at rest.
The desert heavens have felt her sadness;
Her earth will weep her

some dewy tears;
The wild beck ends her tune of gladness,
And
goeth stilly as soul that fears.
We two walk on in our grassy places
On either marge of the moonlit
flood,
With the moon's own sadness in our faces,
Where joy is