But lo! the rich lamenting voice again;
She sang not for herself; it was a song
For me, for I had seen the town and knew,
Yearning I knew the town was not enough.

What more?  To-day looks back on yesterday,
Life’s yesterday, the waiting time, the dawn,
And reads a meaning into it, unknown
When it was with us. 
                      It is always so. 
But when as ofttimes I remember me
Of the warm wind that moved the beggar’s hair,
Of the wet pavement, and the lamps alit,
I know it was not pity that made yearn
My heart for her, and that same dimpled boy
How grand methought to be abroad so late. 
And barefoot dabble in the shining wet;
How fine to peer as other urchins did
At those pent huddled doves they let not rest;
No, it was almost envy.  Ay, how sweet
The clash of bells; they rang to boast that far
That cheerful street was from the cold sea-fog,
From dark ploughed field and narrow lonesome lane. 
How sweet to hear the hum of voices kind,
To see the coach come up with din of horn. 
Quick tramp of horses, mark the passers-by
Greet one another, and go on. 
                               But now
They closed the shops, the wild clear voice was still,
The beggars moved away—­where was their home. 
The coach which came from out dull darksome fells
Into the light; passed to the dark again
Like some old comet which knows well her way,
Whirled to the sun that as her fateful loop
She turns, forebodes the destined silences. 
Yes, it was gone; the clattering coach was gone,
And those it bore I pitied even to tears,
Because they must go forth, nor see the lights,
Nor hear the chiming bells. 
                              In after days,
Remembering of the childish envy and
The childish pity, it has cheered my heart
To think e’en now pity and envy both
It may be are misplaced, or needed not. 
Heaven may look down in pity on some soul
Half envied, or some wholly pitied smile,
For that it hath to wait as it were an hour
To see the lights that go not out by night,
To walk the golden street and hear a song;
Other-world poetry that is the all
And something more.

NATURE, FOR NATURE’S SAKE.

White as white butterflies that each one dons
  Her face their wide white wings to shade withal,
Many moon-daisies throng the water-spring. 
  While couched in rising barley titlarks call,
And bees alit upon their martagons
  Do hang a-murmuring, a-murmuring.

They chide, it may be, alien tribes that flew
  And rifled their best blossom, counted on
And dreamed on in the hive ere dangerous dew
  That clogs bee-wings had dried; but when outshone
Long shafts of gold (made all for them) of power
To charm it away, those thieves had sucked the flower.

Now must they go; a-murmuring they go,
  And little thrushes twitter in the nest;
The world is made for them, and even so
  The clouds are; they have seen no stars, the breast
Of their soft mother hid them all the night,
Till her mate came to her in red dawn-light.