Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861–1907)

Shadow

CHILD of my love! though thou be bright as day,

Though all the sons of joy laugh and adore thee,

Thou canst not throw thy shadow self away.

Where thou dost come, the earth is darker for thee.

When thou dost pass, a flower that saw the sun

Sees him no longer.

The hosts of darkness are, thou radiant one,

Through thee made stronger.