VIII
What I give thee back, O liberal
And princely giver, who hast brought the gold
And purple of thi, unstained, untold,
And laid them oside of the-wall
For such as I to take or leave withal,
In ued largesse ? am I cold,
Ungrateful, that for these most manifold
High gifts, I render nothing back at all ?
Not so; not cold,--but very poor instead.
Ask God who knows. For frequent tears have run
The colors from my life, a so dead
And pale a stuff, it were not fitly done
To give the same as pillow to thy head.
Go farther ! let it serve to trample on.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning