Collected Poems with Autobiographical and Critical Fragments

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: EARLY POEMS The two prize poems on Belisarius which follow were written at Cheltenham College at the age of fourteen. They were both sent in on the same occasion, and were both successful.] BELISARIUS I remember when I think That my youth was half divine. Tennyson. Blind I am, and poor and aged, but my...
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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: EARLY POEMS The two prize poems on Belisarius which follow were written at Cheltenham College at the age of fourteen. They were both sent in on the same occasion, and were both successful.] BELISARIUS I remember when I think That my youth was half divine. Tennyson. Blind I am, and poor and aged, but my spirit holds its might, Though my life, within me waning, flickers wildly into night: Yet I fail as I remember all the days that I have seen, As I live through all the honour, all the sorrow that has been. Well it is remembrance leaves us record of our younger breath, Else, bemazed with ancient sadness, should we stagger unto death; Well that infant passion weakens as we near the voiceless tomb, Else would pangs of slow deferment drench our days in restless gloom. Yet I know in pristine gladness how my vision-hope was high, As I scaled barbarian mountains, slowly nearer on the sky; As I ranged barbarian forests when my step was firm and free, Circled in a haze of glory, gazing through a fair To Be: So I joyed in fresher summers, gentler winters, till at length, When my flesh was formed in sinew, and my manhood reared in strength, Then I left my father-valleys, plunging headlong into strife, Pass'd through danger, pass'd through honour, all vicissitudes of life; And my strong soul buoyed me onward, eager for the future chance, And my life-way showed before me as a line of sure advance; On from glory unto glory, jubilant through ringing years, And acclaim of many nations thundered in my victor-ears. So I leapt from high to higher, conqueror where'er I came, Till the nations lapsed in slumber, shadowed by my hero-name: Then, as one who up a mountain battling higher ever ...