| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Solitude and the Lily | | By Richard Henry Hengist Horne (1802–1884) |
| | The Lily:
I BEND above the moving stream, | |
| And see myself in my own dream,— | |
| Heaven passing, while I do not pass. | |
| Something divine pertains to me, | |
| Or I to it;—reality | 5 |
| Escapes me on this liquid glass. | |
| |
Solitude:
The changeful clouds that float or poise on high, | |
| Emblem earth’s night and day of history; | |
| Renew’d for ever, evermore to die. | |
| Thy life-dream is thy fleeting loveliness; | 10 |
| But mine is concentrated consciousness, | |
| A life apart from pleasure or distress. | |
| The grandeur of the Whole | |
| Absorbs my soul, | |
| While my caves sigh o’er human littleness. | 15 |
| |
The Lily:
Ah, Solitude, | |
| Of marble Silence fit abode! | |
| I do prefer my fading face, | |
| My loss of loveliness and grace, | |
| With cloud-dreams ever in my view; | 20 |
| Also the hope that other eyes | |
| May share my rapture in the skies, | |
| And, if illusion, feel it true. | | | | |
|
|
