and left dry by the surf, with no trace of living thing about it
(Death's altar by the lone shore), she sees a cricket spring gay,
with films of blue, upon the parched turf, and a beautiful butterfly
settle and spread its two red fans, on the rock. And then there is
to her, wholly taken up, as she is, with their beauty,

"No turf, no rock; in their ugly stead,
See, wonderful blue and red!"

and they symbolize to her, Love settling unawares upon men,
the level and low, the burnt and bare, in themselves
(as are the turf and the rock).

VI. `Reading a Book, under the Cliff'. -- The first six stanzas
of this section she reads from a book. *

--
* They were composed by Mr. Browning when in his 23d year,
and published in 1836, in `The Monthly Repository', vol. x., pp. 270, 271,
and entitled simply `Lines'. They were revised and introduced into
this section of `James Lee', which was published in `Dramatis Personae'
in 1864.
--

Her experiences have carried her beyond what these Lines convey,
and she speaks of them somewhat sarcastically and ironically.
This "young man", she thinks, will be wiser in time,

"for kind
Calm years, exacting their accompt