前奏曲。爱是不可能的，一切都服从爱。所有的人都应该知道他们应该遵守什么，以免错误的良心抹杀我们的快乐，让愚蠢把我们的快乐欢笑殆尽。原初的爱啊，你赐给林中的鸟儿翅膀和声音，请赐给我力量，使我能说出那些简单而甜蜜的言语!我走路，我相信，睁着眼睛;我已走完了人生的一半路程;在我身后的路上，有许多虚荣和悔恨;我活得很清楚，骄傲是怎样把两个人分开的，他们就像手和手套一样;我羞于爱的居所——心;但不要不相信爱情; Nor unto love, sole mortal thing Of worth immortal, done the wrong To count it, with the rest that sing, Unworthy of a serious song; And love is my reward; for now, When most of dead'ning time complain, The myrtle blooms upon my brow, Its odour quickens all my brain. III The Poet's Confidence The richest realm of all the earth Is counted still a heathen land: Lo, I, like Joshua, now go forth To give it into Israel's hand. I will not hearken blame or praise; For so should I dishonour do To that sweet Power by which these Lays Alone are lovely, good, and true; Nor credence to the world's cries give, Which ever preach and still prevent Pure passion's high prerogative To make, not follow, precedent. From love's abysmal ether rare If I to men have here made known New truths, they, like new stars, were there Before, though not yet written down. Moving but as the feelings move, I run, or loiter with delight, Or pause to mark where gentle Love Persuades the soul from height to height, Yet, know ye, though my words are gay As David's dance, which Michal scorn'd, If kindly you receive the Lay, You shall be sweetly help'd and warn'd. The Cathedral Close. I Once more I came to Sarum Close, With joy half memory, half desire, And breathed the sunny wind that rose And blew the shadows o'er the Spire, And toss'd the lilac's scented plumes, And sway'd the chestnut's thousand cones, And fill'd my nostrils with perfumes, And shaped the clouds in waifs and zones, And wafted down the serious strain Of Sarum bells, when, true to time, I reach'd the Dean's, with heart and brain That trembled to the trembling chime. II 'Twas half my home, six years ago. The six years had not alter'd it: Red-brick and ashlar, long and low, With dormers and with oriels lit. Geranium, lychnis, rose array'd The windows, all wide open thrown; And some one in the Study play'd The Wedding-March of Mendelssohn. And there it was I last took leave: 'Twas Christmas: I remember'd now The cruel girls, who feign'd to grieve, Took down the evergreens; and how The holly into blazes woke The fire, lighting the large, low room A dim, rich lustre of old oak And crimson velvet's glowing gloom. III No change had touch'd Dean Churchill: kind, By widowhood more than winters bent, And settled in a cheerful mind, As still forecasting heaven's content. Well might his thoughts be fix'd on high, Now she was there! Within her face Humility and dignity Were met in a most sweet embrace. She seem'd expressly sent below To teach our erring minds to see The rhythmic change of time's swift flow As part of still eternity. Her life, all honour, observed, with awe Which cross experience could not mar, The fiction of the Christian law That all men honourable are; And so her smile at once conferr'd High flattery and benign reproof; And I, a rude boy, strangely stirr'd, Grew courtly in my own behoof. The years, so far from doing her wrong, Anointed her with gracious balm, And made her brows more and more young With wreaths of amaranth and palm. IV Was this her eldest, Honor; prude, Who would not let me pull the swing; Who, kiss'd at Christmas, call'd me rude, And, sobbing low, refused to sing? How changed! In shape no slender Grace, But Venus; milder than the dove; Her mother's air; her Norman face; Her large sweet eyes, clear lakes of love. Mary I knew. In former time Ailing and pale, she thought that bliss Was only for a better clime, And, heavenly overmuch, scorn'd this. I, rash with theories of the right, Which stretch'd the tether of my Creed, But did not break it, held delight Half discipline. We disagreed. She told the Dean I wanted grace. Now she was kindest of the three, And soft wild roses deck'd her face. And, what, was this my Mildred, she To herself and all a sweet surprise? My Pet, who romp'd and roll'd a hoop? I wonder'd where those daisy eyes Had found their touching curve and droop. V Unmannerly times! But now we sat