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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=359167" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Angel In The House. Book II. Canto II.</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Preludes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I The Changed Allegiance <br>Watch how a bird, that captived sings,<br>The cage set open, first looks out,<br>Yet fears the freedom of his wings,<br>And now withdraws, and flits about,<br>And now looks forth again; until,<br>Grown bold, he hops on stool and chair,<br>And now attains the window-sill,<br>And now confides himself to air.<br>The maiden so, from love's free sky<br>In chaste and prudent counsels caged,<br>But longing to be loosen'd by<br>Her suitor's faith declared and gaged,<br>When blest with that release desired,<br>First doubts if truly she is free,<br>Then pauses, restlessly retired,<br>Alarm'd at too much liberty;<br>But soon, remembering all her debt<br>To plighted passion, gets by rote<br>Her duty; says, ‘I love him!’ yet<br>The thought half chokes her in her throat; <br>And, like that fatal ‘I am thine,’<br>Comes with alternate gush and check<br>And joltings of the heart, as wine<br>Pour'd from a flask of narrow neck.<br>Is he indeed her choice? She fears<br>Her Yes was rashly said, and shame,<br>Remorse, and ineffectual tears<br>Revolt from his conceded claim.<br>Oh, treason! So, with desperate nerve,<br>She cries, ‘I am in love, am his;’<br>Lets run the cables of reserve,<br>And floats into a sea of bliss,<br>And laughs to think of her alarm,<br>Avows she was in love before,<br>Though his avowal was the charm<br>Which open'd to her own the door.<br>She loves him for his mastering air,<br>Whence, Parthian-like, she slaying flies;<br>His flattering look, which seems to wear<br>Her loveliness in manly eyes;<br>His smile, which, by reverse, portends<br>An awful wrath, should reason stir;<br>(How fortunate it is they're friends,<br>And he will ne'er be wroth with her!)<br>His power to do or guard from harm;<br>If he but chose to use it half,<br>And catch her up in one strong arm,<br>What could she do but weep, or laugh!<br>His words, which still instruct, but so<br>That this applause seems still implied,<br>‘How wise in all she ought to know,<br>‘How ignorant of all beside!’<br>His skilful suit, which leaves her free,<br>Gives nothing for the world to name,<br>And keeps her conscience safe, while he,<br>With half the bliss, takes all the blame; <br>His clear repute with great and small;<br>The jealousy his choice will stir;<br>But, ten times more than ten times all,<br>She loves him for his love of her.<br>How happy 'tis he seems to see<br>In her that utter loveliness<br>Which she, for his sake, longs to be!<br>At times, she cannot but confess<br>Her other friends are somewhat blind;<br>Her parents' years excuse neglect,<br>But all the rest are scarcely kind,<br>And brothers grossly want respect;<br>And oft she views what he admires<br>Within her glass, and sight of this<br>Makes all the sum of her desires<br>To be devotion unto his.<br>But still, at first, whatever's done,<br>A touch, her hand press'd lightly, she<br>Stands dizzied, shock'd, and flush'd, like one<br>Set sudden neck-deep in the sea;<br>And, though her bond for endless time<br>To his good pleasure gives her o'er,<br>The slightest favour seems a crime,<br>Because it makes her love him more.<br>But that she ne'er will let him know;<br>For what were love should reverence cease!<br>A thought which makes her reason so<br>Inscrutable, it seems caprice.<br>With her, as with a desperate town,<br>Too weak to stand, too proud to treat,<br>The conqueror, though the walls are down,<br>Has still to capture street by street;<br>But, after that, habitual faith,<br>Divorced from self, where late 'twas due,<br>Walks nobly in its novel path,<br>And she's to changed allegiance true; <br>And prizing what she can't prevent,<br>(Right wisdom, often misdeem'd whim),<br>Her will's indomitably bent<br>On mere submissiveness to him;<br>To him she'll cleave, for him forsake<br>Father's and mother's fond command!<br>He is her lord, for he can take<br>Hold of her faint heart with his hand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">II Beauty <br>‘Beauty deludes.’ O shaft well shot,<br>To strike the mark's true opposite!<br>That ugly good is scorn'd proves not<br>Tis beauty lies, but lack of it.<br>By Heaven's law the Jew might take<br>A slave to wife, if she was fair;<br>So strong a plea does beauty make<br>That, where 'tis seen, discretion's there.<br>If, by a monstrous chance, we learn<br>That this illustrious vaunt's a lie,<br>Our minds, by which the eyes discern,<br>See hideous contrariety,<br>And laugh at Nature's wanton mood,<br>Which, thus a swinish thing to flout,<br>Though haply in its gross way good,<br>Hangs such a jewel in its snout.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">III Lais and Lucretia <br>Did first his beauty wake her sighs?<br>That's Lais! Thus Lucretia's known:<br>The beauty in her Lover's eyes<br>Was admiration of her own.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>The Course Of True Love. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I<br>Oh, beating heart of sweet alarm,<br>Which stays the lover's step, when near<br>His mistress and her awful charm<br>Of grace and innocence sincere!<br>I held the half-shut door, and heard<br>The voice of my betrothed wife,<br>Who sang my verses, every word<br>By music taught its latent life;<br>With interludes of well-touch'd notes,<br>That flash'd, surprising and serene,<br>As meteor after meteor floats<br>The soft, autumnal stars between.<br>There was a passion in her tone,<br>A tremor when she touch'd the keys,<br>Which told me she was there alone,<br>And uttering all her soul at ease.<br>I enter'd; for I did not choose<br>To learn how in her heart I throve,<br>By chance or stealth; beyond her use,<br>Her greeting flatter'd me with love.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">II<br>With true love's treacherous confidence,<br>And ire, at last to laughter won,<br>She spoke this speech, and mark'd its sense,<br>By action, as her Aunt had done.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">III<br>‘'You, with your looks and catching air,<br>‘'To think of Vaughan! You fool! You know,<br>‘'You might, with ordinary care,<br>‘'Ev'n yet be Lady Clitheroe. <br>‘'You're sure he'll do great things some day!<br>‘'Nonsense, he won't; he's dress'd too well.<br>‘'Dines with the Sterling Club, they say;<br>‘'Not commonly respectable!<br>‘'Half Puritan, half Cavalier!<br>‘'His curly hair I think's a wig;<br>‘'And, for his fortune, why, my Dear,<br>‘''Tis not enough to keep a gig.<br>‘'Rich Aunts and Uncles never die;<br>‘'And what you bring won't do for dress;<br>‘'And so you'll live on Bye-and-bye,<br>‘'With oaten-cake and water-cress!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>IV<br>‘I cried, but did not let her see.<br>‘At last she soften'd her dispraise,<br>‘On learning you had bought for me<br>‘A carriage and a pair of bays.<br>‘But here she comes! You take her in<br>‘To dinner. I impose this task:<br>‘Make her approve my love; and win<br>‘What thanks from me you choose to ask!’</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>V<br>‘My niece has told you every word<br>‘I said of you! What may I mean?<br>‘Of course she has; but you've not heard<br>‘How I abused you to the Dean;—<br>‘Yes, I'll take wine; he's mad, like her;<br>‘And she will have you: there it ends!<br>‘And, now I've done my duty, Sir,<br>‘And you've shown common-sense, we're friends!’</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>VI<br>‘Go, Child, and see him out yourself,’<br>Aunt Maude said, after tea, ‘and show<br>‘The place, upon that upper shelf,<br>‘Where Petrarch stands, lent long ago.’</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>VII<br>‘These rose-leaves to my heart be press'd,<br>‘Honoria, while it aches for you!’<br>(The rose in ruin, from her breast,<br>Fell, as I took a fond adieu.)<br>‘You must go now, Love!’ ‘See, the air<br>‘Is thick with starlight!’ ‘Let me tie<br>‘This scarf on. Oh, your Petrarch! There!<br>‘I'm coming, Aunt!’ ‘Sweet, Sweet!’ ‘Good-bye!’<br>‘Ah, Love, to me 'tis death to part,<br>‘Yet you, my sever'd life, smile on!’<br>‘These 'Good-nights,' Felix, break my heart;<br>‘I'm only gay till you are gone!’<br>With love's bright arrows from her eyes,<br>And balm on her permissive lips,<br>She pass'd, and night was a surprise,<br>As when the sun at Quito dips.<br>Her beauties were like sunlit snows,<br>Flush'd but not warm'd with my desire.<br>Oh, how I loved her! Fiercely glows<br>In the pure air of frost the fire<br>Who for a year is sure of fate!<br>I thought, dishearten'd, as I went,<br>Wroth with the Dean, who bade me wait,<br>And vex'd with her, who seem'd content.<br>Nay, could eternal life afford<br>That tyranny should thus deduct<br>From this fair land, which call'd me lord,<br>A year of the sweet usufruct? <br>It might not and it should not be!<br>I'd go back now, and he must own,<br>At once, my love's compulsive plea.<br>I turn'd, I found the Dean alone.<br>‘Nonsense, my friend; go back to bed!<br>‘It's half-past twelve!’ ‘July, then, Sir?’<br>‘Well, come to-morrow,’ at last he said,<br>‘And you may talk of it with her.’<br>A light gleam'd as I pass'd the stair.<br>A pausing foot, a flash of dress,<br>And a sweet voice. ‘Is Felix there?’<br>‘July, Love!’ ‘Says Papa so?’ ‘Yes!’</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Coventry+Patmore">Coventry Patmore</a><div class=q>
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I The Changed Allegiance 
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; until,
Grown bold, he hops on stool ..."></div>
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