| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
| |
| O. M. B. |
| | | Ford Madox Brown (1821–93) |
| | | | | Died November, 1874 |
| |
| |
| AS one who strives from some fast steamer’s side | |
| To note amid the backward-spinning foam | |
| And keep in view some separate wreath therefrom, | |
| That cheats him even the while he views it glide | |
| (Merging in other foam-tracks stretching wide), | 5 |
| So strive we to keep clear that day our home | |
| First saw you riven—a memory thence to roam, | |
| A shatter’d blossom on the eternal tide! | |
| O broken promises that show’d so fair! | |
| O morning sun of wit set in despair! | 10 |
| O brows made smooth as with the Muse’s chrism! | |
| O Oliver! ourselves Death’s cataclysm | |
| Must soon o’ertake—but not in vain—not where | |
| Some vestige of your thought outspans the abysm! | |
| |
|
|
|
