Higher far,
Upward, into the pure realm,
Over sun or star,
Over the flickering Dæmon film,
...
Himself it was who wrote
His rank, and quartered his own coat.
There is no king nor sovereign state
That can fix a hero's rate;
...
The sense of the world is short, -
Long and various the report, -
To love and be beloved;
Men and gods have not outlearned it;
...
The south-wind brings
Life, sunshine, and desire,
And on every mount and meadow
Breathes aromatic fire,
...
Who gave thee, O Beauty!
The keys of this breast,
Too credulous lover
Of blest and unblest?
...
Why should I keep holiday,
When other men have none?
Why but because when these are gay,
I sit and mourn alone.
...
It is time to be old,
To take in sail:--
The god of bounds,
Who sets to seas a shore,
...
BRING me wine, but wine which never grew
In the belly of the grape,
Or grew on vine whose tap-roots, reaching through
Under the Andes to the Cape,
...
I Alphonso live and learn,
Seeing nature go astern.
Things deteriorate in kind,
Lemons run to leaves and rind,
...
Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown,
Of thee, from the hill-top looking down;
And the heifer, that lows in the upland farm,
Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm;
...