Robert Browning's Poetical Works: Paracelsus. Strafford

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Smith, Elder, & Company, 1889
 

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Page 262 - How hath the oppressor ceased ! the golden city ceased ! The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
Page 27 - I go to prove my soul ! I see my way as birds their trackless way. I shall arrive ! what time, what circuit first, I ask not : but unless God send his hail Or blinding fireballs, sleet or stifling snow, In some time, his good time, I shall arrive : He guides me and the bird. In his good time ! Mich.
Page 59 - tis clear if we refuse The means so limited, the tools so rude To execute our purpose, life will fleet, And we shall fade, and leave our task undone.
Page 19 - What fairer seal Shall I require to my authentic mission Than this fierce energy ? — this instinct striving Because its nature is to strive ? — enticed By the security of no broad course...
Page 177 - T is for their good, and therefore fit awhile That they reject the weak, and scorn the false, Rather than praise the strong and true, in me: But after, they will know me. If I stoop Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud, It is but for a time; I press God's lamp Close to my breast; its splendour, soon or late, Will pierce the gloom: I shall emerge one day.
Page 149 - T is only when they spring to heaven that angels Reveal themselves to you ; they sit all day Beside you, and lie down at night by you Who care not for their presence, muse or sleep, And all at once they leave you, and you know them...
Page 176 - To trace love's faint beginnings in mankind, To know even hate is but a mask of love's. To see a good in evil, and a hope In ill-success ; to sympathize, be proud Of their half-reasons, faint aspirings, dim Struggles for truth, their poorest fallacies, Their prejudice and fears and cares and doubts ; All with a touch of nobleness, despite Their error, upward tending all though weak, Like plants in mines which never saw the sun, But dream of him, and guess where he may be, And do their best to climb...
Page 19 - How know I else such glorious fate my own, But in the restless irresistible force That works within me ? Is it for human will To institute such impulses ? — still less, To disregard their promptings ! What should I Do, kept among you all ; your loves, your cares, Your life — all to be mine .: Be sure that God Ne'er dooms to waste the strength he deigns impart!
Page 119 - 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, 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 shroud Which breaks to dust when once unrolled; Or shredded perfume, like a cloud From closet long to quiet vowed, With mothed and dropping arras...
Page 64 - Die not, Aprile ! We must never part. Are we not halves of one dissevered world, Whom this strange chance unites once more ? Part ? never ! 1 Till thou the lover, know ; and I, the knower, I Love — until both are saved.

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