...  To the dim street I led her sacred feet; And so the Daughter gave, Soft, moth-like, sweet, Showy as damask-rose and shy as musk, Back to her Mother, anxious in the dusk.  And now “Good Night!”

Why should the poet speak of the girl in this way?  Why does he call her feet sacred?  She has just promised to marry him; and now she seems to him quite divine.  But he discovers very plain words with which to communicate his finer feelings to the reader.  The street is “dim” because it is night; and in the night the beautifully dressed maiden seems like a splendid moth—­the name given to night butterflies in England.  In England the moths are much more beautiful than the true butterflies; they have wings of scarlet and purple and brown and gold.  So the comparison, though peculiarly English, is very fine.  Also there is a suggestion of the soundlessness of the moth’s flight.  Now “showy as damask rose” is a striking simile only because the damask-rose is a wonderfully splendid flower—­richest in colour of all roses in English gardens.  “Shy as musk” is rather a daring simile.  “Musk” is a perfume used by English as well as Japanese ladies, but there is no perfume which must be used with more discretion, carefulness.  If you use ever so little too much, the effect is not pleasant.  But if you use exactly the proper quantity, and no more, there is no perfume which is more lovely.  “Shy as musk” thus refers to that kind of girlish modesty which never commits a fault even by the measure of a grain—­beautiful shyness incapable of being anything but beautiful.  Nevertheless the comparison must be confessed one which should be felt rather than explained.

The second of the three promised quotations shall be from Robert Browning.  There is one feeling, not often touched upon by poets, yet peculiar to lovers, that is here treated—­the desire when you are very happy or when you are looking at anything attractive to share the pleasure of the moment with the beloved.  But it seldom happens that the wish and the conditions really meet.  Referring to this longing Browning made a short lyric that is now a classic; it is among the most dainty things of the century.

  Never the time and the place
    And the loved one all together! 
  This path—­how soft to pace! 
    This May—­what magic weather! 
  Where is the loved one’s face? 
  In a dream that loved one’s face meets mine,
  But the house is narrow, the place is bleak
  Where, outside, rain and wind combine
  With a furtive ear, if I try to speak,
  With a hostile eye at my flushing cheek,
  With a malice that marks each word, each sign!