The majesty of Rome to me is nought;

The things I love have all grown wearisome;The things that loved me are estranged or dead.I have a house most fair, but tenantedWith shadows only, gardens of tall trees,Fenced in and made secure from every dreadBut this one terror, my soul’s lack of ease.I have much wealth of pleasure, horse and hound,Woods broad for sport,…

Is the most serious, and perhaps the best,Of all the nations which have power with men.France only of the nations has this plainThought in the world, to scorn hypocrisy,And by this token she shall purge the stainOf her sins yet, though these as scarlet be.Let her put off her folly! ‘Tis a cloakWhich hides her…

Here at the gate I lay down my life’s treasure,My pride, my garments and my name with men.The world and I henceforth shall be as twain,No sound of me shall pierce for good or illThese walls of grief. Nor shall I hear the vainLaughter and tears of those who love me still.Within, what new life…

To see men turn their heads when thou dost pass;To be the signboard and the looking–glassWhere every idler there may glut his eye;To hear men speak thy name mysteriously,Wagging their heads. Is it for this, alas,That thou hast made a placard of a faceOn which the tears of love were hardly dry?What are these things…

Make thee thus shrink from them and be denied?They are but as thou art, each mother’s sonA convict in transgression. Here is one,Sayest thou, who struck his fellow and he died.And yet he weeps hot tears. Do thy tears run?This other thieved, yet clasps Christ crucified.Where is thy greater virtue? Thinkest thou sinIs but crime’s…

I too delighted in the blackbird’s song.When the sun shone my soul made holiday.When the rain fell I felt it as a wrong.Then for me too the world was fresh and young.Oh what a miracle each bluebell was!How my heart leaped in union with my tongue,When first I lit upon a stag’s horn moss!–A year…