“EARTH’S IMMORTALITIES.”  A sad and subtle little satire on the vaunted permanence of love and fame.  The poet’s grave falls to pieces.  The words:  “love me for ever,” appeal to us from a tombstone which records how Spring garlands are severed by the hand of June, and June’s fever is quenched in winter’s snow.

“HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA.”  An utterance of patriotic pride and gratitude, aroused in the mind of an Englishman, by the sudden appearance of Trafalgar in the blood-red glow of the southern setting sun.

“MY STAR” may be taken as a tribute to the personal element in love:  the bright peculiar light in which the sympathetic soul reveals itself to the object of its sympathy.

“MISCONCEPTIONS” illustrates the false hopes which may be aroused in the breast of any devoted creature by an incidental and momentary acceptance of its devotion.

“A PRETTY WOMAN” is the picture of a simple, compliant, exquisitely pretty, and hopelessly shallow woman:  incapable of love, though a mere nothing will win her liking.  And the question is raised, whether such a creature is not perfect in itself, and would not be marred by any attempt to improve it, or extract from it a different use.  The author decides in the affirmative.  A rose is best “graced,” not by reproducing its petals in precious stones for a king to preserve; not by plucking it to “smell, kiss, wear,” and throw away; but by simply leaving it where it grows.  A “pretty” woman is most appropriately treated when nothing is asked of her, but to be so.

“IN A YEAR” is a wondering and sorrowful little comment on a man’s shallowness and inconstancy.

“WOMEN AND ROSES” is the impression of a dream, and both vague and vivid, as such impressions are.  The author dreams of a “red rose-tree,” with three roses upon it:  one withered, the second full-blown, the third still in the bud; and, floating round each, a generation of women:  those famed in the past; the loved and loving of the present; the “beauties yet unborn.”  He casts his passion at the feet of the dead; but they float past him unmoved.  He enfolds in it the glowing forms of the living; but these also elude him.  He pours it into the budding life, which may thus respond to his own; but the procession of maidens drifts past him too.  They all circle unceasingly round their own rose.

“BEFORE” and “AFTER” are companion poems, which show how differently an act may present itself in prospect and in remembrance, whether regarded in its abstract justification, or in its actual results.  The question is that of a duel; and “BEFORE” is the utterance of a third person to whom the propriety of fighting it seems beyond a doubt.  “A great wrong has been done.  The wronged man, who is also the better one, is bound to assert himself in defence of the right.  If he is killed, he will have gained his heaven.  For his slayer, hell will have begun:  for he will feel the impending judgment, in the earth which still offers its fruits; in the sky, which makes no sign; in the leopard-like conscience[96] which leers in mock obeisance at his side, ready to spring on him whenever the moment comes.  There has been enough of delay and extenuation.  Let the culprit acknowledge his guilt, or take its final consequences.”