'Tis but a box, of modest deal;
Directed to no matter where:
Yet down my cheek the teardrops steal--
Yes, I am blubbering like a seal;
For on it is this mute appeal,
"_With care_."
I am a stern cold man, and range
Apart: but those vague words "_With care_"
Wake yearnings in me sweet as strange:
Drawn from my moral Moated Grange,
I feel I rather like the change
Of air.
Hast thou ne'er seen rough pointsmen spy
Some simple English phrase--"_With care_"
Or "_This side uppermost_"--and cry
Like children? No? No more have I.
Yet deem not him whose eyes are dry
A bear.
But ah! what treasure hides beneath
That lid so much the worse for wear?
A ring perhaps--a rosy wreath--
A photograph by Vernon Heath--
Some matron's temporary teeth
Or hair!
Perhaps some seaman, in Peru
Or Ind, hath stowed herein a rare
Cargo of birds'-eggs for his Sue;
With many a vow that he'll be true,
And many a hint that she is too--
Too fair.
Perhaps--but wherefore vainly pry
Into the page that's folded there?
I shall be better by-and-by:
The porters, as I sit and sigh,
Pass and repass--I wonder why
They stare!
"FOREVER"
Forever! 'Tis a single word!
Our rude forefathers deemed it two;
Can you imagine so absurd
A view?
Forever! What abysms of woe
The word reveals, what frenzy, what
Despair! For ever (printed so)
Did not.
It looks, ah me! how trite and tame;
It fails to sadden or appall
Or solace--it is not the same
At all.
O thou to whom it first occurred
To solder the disjoined, and dower
Thy native language with a word
Of power:
We bless thee! Whether far or near
Thy dwelling, whether dark or fair
Thy kingly brow, is neither here
Nor there.
But in men's hearts shall be thy throne,
While the great pulse of England beats:
Thou coiner of a word unknown
To Keats!
And nevermore must printer do
As men did long ago; but run
"For" into "ever," bidding two
Be one.
Forever! passion-fraught, it throws
O'er the dim page a gloom, a glamour:
It's sweet, it's strange; and I suppose
It's grammar.
Forever! 'Tis a single word!
And yet our fathers deemed it two:
Nor am I confident they erred;--
Are you?