Given with thy birth; would'st thou thine honour smutch

With coward failing? Dear son, breast the sea."
Firm-purposed from that hour, through wind and wave,
I brought my message till thou shelter gave.






WHEN FIRST I SAW THEE

When first I saw thee, lady, straightway came
The thought that somehow, somewhere, destiny,
Through blinding paths of happiness or blame,
Would bend my way of life, my soul to thee.

But then I put it from me: was not I
A wanderer? To-morrow I should be
In other lands-beside another sea;
Nay, you were but a star-gleam in my sky.

And so I came not in your sight awhile,
You gave no thought, and I passed not away;
But like some traveller in a deep defile

I walked in darkness even through the day:
Until at last the hands of Circumstance
Pointed the hour that waked me from my trance.