As thro' the land at eve we went, And pluck'd the ripen'd ears, We fell out, my wife and I, And kiss'd again with tears. And blessings on the falling out That all the more endears, When we fall out with those we love And kiss again with tears! For when we came where lies the child We lost in other years, There above the little grave, O there above the little grave, We kiss'd again with tears. II. IT break of day the College Portress came: She brought us Academic silks, in hue The lilac, with a silken hood to each, And zoned with gold; and now when these were on, And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons, She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know The Princess Ida waited: out we paced, I first, and following thro' the porch that sang Enring'd a billowing fountain in the midst; Or book or lute; but hastily we past, And up a flight of stairs into the hall. There at a board by tome and paper sat, Of some clear planet close upon the Sun, "We give you welcome: not without redound Of use and glory to yourselves ye come, The first-fruits of the stranger: aftertime, And that full voice which circles round the grave, "We of the court" said Cyril. "From the court" She answer'd, "then ye know the Prince?" and he: "The climax of his age! as tho' there were One rose in all the world, your Highness that, He worships your ideal:" she replied: "We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear This barren verbiage, current among men, Light coin, the tinsel clink of compliment. Your flight from out your bookless wilds would seem As arguing love of knowledge and of power; You may with those self-styled our lords ally At those high words, we conscious of ourselves, Perused the matting; then an officer |