Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE SUN-DIAL The sun is shining through a hot white veil; And round the faded sun-dial, on the face Of this old Tuscan house, whose narrow space Prisons my life, the pointing shade creeps pale. More sluggish than the dusty sun-baked snail, On the same wall, it keeps its gnawing pace, The shadow of a shade, faint as the trace Of Life's lost pleasures, up the dull old scale. Thou shade of woe, that creep'st at Fate's command, Say, must the body wait till it be dead To quit this numbing stretcher of disease ?(/ Oh, is therejio Isaiah injthe land, To raise me from this'miserable bed] And make the shadow leapthe ten degrees ? No, there is no tall prophet at my call Flame-eyed, imperious, doomed to wooden saws, To stretch his rod athwart eternal laws And juggle with the shadow on the wall. No Ahaz' sun-dial this. The earth's dumb ball, Through the blind Heaven of effect and cause, Rolls on and on ; — and on, without a pause The shadow creeps, to merge in Night's great pall. Then list, ye Hours. — Since it is writ on high That none shall help me in my silent fight, Creep but for me, and fast for others fly: So shall I lie content, and deem things right, And heave at most a wistful waiting sigh, For death's unstarr'd, but hospitable night. BRUSH AND CHISEL ON A GROUP OF FRA ANGELICO'S ANGELS What Tuscan sunset, what aerial gold, Condensed its flakes to make these aureoled shapes, These bright winged trumpeters that colour drapes In robes of glow and wonder from of old; As if they roamed those pale-green depths that hold The topaz isles and diamond-outlined capes, When, through the West's great gate, as he escapes, Light flings his fan, for seraphim to fold ? Or were they born of such bright drifts as now, Like countless ch...