Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning. Robert Browning

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      "HEAP CASSIA, SANDAL-BUDS, AND STRIPES"

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      Heap cassia, sandal-buds, and stripes

       Of labdanum, and aloe-balls,

       Smeared with dull nard an Indian wipes

       From out her hair; such balsam falls

       Down sea-side mountain pedestals,5

       From tree-tops where tired winds are fain,

       Spent with the vast and howling main,

       To treasure half their island-gain.

      And strew faint sweetness from some old

       Egyptian's fine worm-eaten shroud10

       Which breaks to dust when once unrolled;

       Or shredded perfume, like a cloud

       From closet long to quiet vowed,

       With mothed and dropping arras hung,

       Moldering her lute and books among,15

       As when a queen, long dead, was young.

II

      "OVER THE SEA OUR GALLEYS WENT"

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      Over the sea our galleys went

       With cleaving prows in order brave

       To a speeding wind and a bounding wave—

       A gallant armament;20

       Each bark built out of a forest-tree

       Left leafy and rough as first it grew,

       And nailed all over the gaping sides,

       Within and without, with black bull-hides,

       Seethed in fat and suppled in flame,25

       To bear the playful billows' game.

       So each good ship was rude to see,

       Rude and bare to the outward view,

       But each upbore a stately tent

       Where cedar pales in scented row30

       Kept out the flakes of the dancing brine,

       And an awning drooped the mast below,

       In fold on fold of the purple fine,

       That neither noontide nor starshine

       Nor moonlight cold which maketh mad,35

       Might pierce the regal tenement.

       When the sun dawned, oh, gay and glad

       We set the sail and plied the oar;

       But when the night-wind blew like breath,

       For joy of one day's voyage more,40

       We sang together on the wide sea,

       Like men at peace on a peaceful shore;

       Each sail was loosed to the wind so free,

       Each helm made sure by the twilight star,

       And in a sleep as calm as death,45

       We, the voyagers from afar,

       Lay stretched along, each weary crew

       In a circle round its wondrous tent

       Whence gleamed soft light and curled rich scent,

       And with light and perfume, music too.50

       So the stars wheeled round, and the darkness passed,

       And at morn we started beside the mast,

       And still each ship was sailing fast.

      Now one morn land appeared—a speck

       Dim trembling betwixt sea and sky.55

       "Avoid it," cried our pilot, "check

       The shout, restrain the eager eye!"

       But the heaving sea was black behind

       For many a night and many a day,

       And land, though but a rock, drew nigh;60

       So we broke the cedar pales away,

       Let the purple awning flap in the wind,

       And a statue bright was on every deck!

       We shouted, every man of us,

       And steered right into the harbor thus,65

       With pomp and pæan glorious.

      A hundred shapes of lucid stone!

       All day we built its shrine for each,

       A shrine of rock for everyone,

       Nor paused till in the westering sun70

       We sat together on the beach

       To sing because our task was done.

       When lo! what shouts and merry songs!

       What laughter all the distance stirs!

       A loaded raft with happy throngs75

       Of gentle islanders!

       "Our isles are just at hand," they cried,

       "Like cloudlets faint in even sleeping;

       Our temple-gates are opened wide,

       Our olive-groves thick shade are keeping80 For these majestic forms"—they cried. Oh, then we awoke with sudden start From our deep dream, and knew, too late, How bare the rock, how desolate, Which had received our precious freight.85 Yet we called out—"Depart! Our gifts once given must here abide. Our work is done; we have no heart To mar our work"—we cried.

III

      "THUS THE MAYNE GLIDETH"

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      Thus the Mayne glideth90

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