Dramatis Personae Author:Robert Browning 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: PROSPICE. Pear death ? — to feel the fog in. my throat, The mist in my face, When the snows begin, and the blasts denote I am nearing the place, The po... more »wer of the night, the press of the storm, The post of the foe ; Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form, Yet the strong man must go: For the journey is done and the summit attained, And the barriers fall, Though a battle 's to fight ere the guerdon be gained, The reward of it all. I was ever a fighter, so — one fight more, The best and the last! I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, And bade me creep past. No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers The heroes of old, Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears Of pain, darkness, and cold. For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, The black minute 's at end, And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave, Shall dwindle, shall blend, Shall change, shall become first a peace, then a joy, Then a light, then thy breast, O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again, And with God be the rest! YOUTH AND ART. YOUTH AND AET. It once might have been, once only : We lodged in a street together, Tou, a sparrow on the housetop lonely, I, a lone she-bird of his feather. Tour trade was with sticks and clay, Yon thumbed, thrust, patted, and polished, Then laughed, " They win see some day Smith made, and Gibson demolished." My business was song, song, song ; I chirped, cheeped, trilled, and twittered, " Kate Brown 's on the boards erelong, And Grisi's existence embittered ! " I earned no more by a warble Than you by a sketch in plaster ; You wanted a piece of marble, I needed a music-master. We studied hard in our styles, Chipped each at a c...« less