The Angel in the House

WATCH how a bird, that captived sings, The cage set open, first looks out, Yet fears the freedom of his wings, And now withdraws, and flits about, And now looks forth again; unt...

WHY, having won her, do I woo? Because her spirit’s vestal grace Provokes me always to pursue, But, spirit-like, eludes embrace; Because her womanhood is such That, as on court-...

SHE wearies with an ill unknown; In sleep she sobs and seems to float, A water-lily, all alone Within a lonely castle-moat; And as the full-moon, spectral, lies Within the cresc...

WHEN I behold the skies aloft Passing the pageantry of dreams, The cloud whose bosom, cygnet-soft, A couch for nuptial Juno seems, The ocean broad, the mountains bright, The sha...

WOULD Wisdom for herself be woo’d, And wake the foolish from his dream, She must be glad as well as good, And must not only be, but seem. Beauty and joy are hers by right; And,...

THE woman’s gentle mood o’erstept Withers my love, that lightly scans The rest, and does in her accept All her own faults, but none of man’s. As man I cannot judge her ill, Or h...

WHAT’S that, which, ere I spake, was gone? So joyful and intense a spark That, whilst o’erhead the wonder shone, The day, before but dull, grew dark. I do not know; but this I k...

Lo, love’s obey’d by all. ’Tis right That all should know what they obey, Lest erring conscience damp delight, And folly laugh our joys away. Thou Primal Love, who grantest wing...

MAN must be pleased; but him to please Is woman’s pleasure; down the gulf Of his condoled necessities She casts her best, she flings herself. How often flings for nought, and yo...

IF he’s capricious she’ll be so, But, if his duties constant are, She lets her loving favour glow As steady as a tropic star; Appears there nought for which to weep, She’ll weep...

WHERE she succeeds with cloudless brow, In common and in holy course, He fails, in spite of prayer and vow And agonies of faith and force; Or, if his suit with Heaven prevails T...

LO, when the Lord made North and South And sun and moon ordained, He, Forthbringing each by word of mouth In order of its dignity, Did man from the crude clay express By sequenc...

HOW strange a thing a lover seems To animals that do not love! Lo, where he walks and talks in dreams, And flouts us with his Lady’s glove; How foreign is the garb he wears; And...

HE meets, by heavenly chance express, The destined maid; some hidden hand Unveils to him that loveliness Which others cannot understand. His merits in her presence grow, To matc...

RIGHT art thou who wouldst rather be A doorkeeper in Love’s fair house, Than lead the wretched revelry Where fools at swinish troughs carouse. But do not boast of being least; A...

MOST rare is still most noble found, Most noble still most incomplete; Sad law, which leaves King Love uncrown’d In this obscure, terrestrial seat! With bale more sweet than oth...

‘PERHAPS she’s dancing somewhere now!’ The thoughts of light and music wake Sharp jealousies, that grow and grow Till silence and the darkness ache. He sees her step, so proud a...

O QUEEN, awake to thy renown, Require what ’tis our wealth to give, And comprehend and wear the crown Of thy despised prerogative! I, who in manhood’s name at length With glad s...

THE pulse of War, whose bloody heats Sane purposes insanely work, Now with fraternal frenzy beats, And binds the Christian to the Turk, And shrieking fifes and braggart flags, T...

How vilely ’twere to misdeserve The poet’s gift of perfect speech, In song to try, with trembling nerve, The limit of its utmost reach, Only to sound the wretched praise Of what...

KEEP your undrest, familiar style For strangers, but respect your friend, Her most, whose matrimonial smile Is and asks honour without end. ’Tis found, and needs it must so be,...

CAN ought compared with wedlock be For use? But He who made the heart To use proportions joy. What He Has join’d let no man put apart. Sweet Order has its draught of bliss Grace...

THE lover who, across a gulf Of ceremony, views his Love, And dares not yet address herself, Pays worship to her stolen glove. The gulf o’erleapt, the lover wed, It happens oft,...

LO, how the woman once was woo’d; Forth leapt the savage from his lair, And fell’d her, and to nuptials rude He dragg’d her, bleeding, by the hair. From that to Chloe’s dainty w...

‘MINE is no horse with wings, to gain The region of the spheral chime; He does but drag a rumbling wain, Cheer’d by the coupled bells of rhyme; And if at Fame’s bewitching note...

HER sons pursue the butterflies, Her baby daughter mocks the doves With throbbing coo; in his fond eyes She’s Venus with her little Loves; Her footfall dignifies the earth, Her...

PAGE THE PROLOGUE. 13 CANTO I. THE CATHEDRAL CLOSE 17 Preludes: 1. The Impossibility 17 2. Love’s Really 17 3. The Poet’s Confidence 18 The Cathedral Close 19 II. MARY AND MILDR...

THE PROLOGUE 105 I. ACCEPTED 109 Preludes: 1. The Song of Songs 109 2. The Kites 110 3. Orpheus 111 4. Nearest the Dearest 111 5. Perspective 112 Accepted 112 II. THE COURSE OF...