I have lived (I shall say) so much since then,
    Given up myself so many times,
  Gained me the gains of various men,
    Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;
  Yet one thing, one, in my soul’s full scope,
    Either I missed or itself missed me: 
  And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope! 
    What is the issue? let us see!

  I loved you, Evelyn, all the while! 
    My heart seemed full as it could hold;
  There was space and to spare for the frank young smile,
    And the red young mouth, and the hair’s young gold. 
  So, hush,—­I will give you this leaf to keep: 
    See, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand! 
  There, that is our secret:  go to sleep! 
    You will wake, and remember, and understand.

No other poet has written so many different kinds of poems on this subject as Browning; and although I can not quote all of them, I must not neglect to make a just representation of the variety.  Here is another example:  the chief idea is again the beauty of truthfulness and fidelity, but the artistic impression is quite different.

  A simple ring with a single stone,
    To the vulgar eye no stone of price: 
  Whisper the right word, that alone—­
    Forth starts a sprite, like fire from ice. 
  And lo, you are lord (says an Eastern scroll)
  Of heaven and earth, lord whole and sole
      Through the power in a pearl.

  A woman (’tis I this time that say)
    With little the world counts worthy praise: 
  Utter the true word—­out and away
    Escapes her soul; I am wrapt in blaze,
  Creation’s lord, of heaven and earth
  Lord whole and sole—­by a minute’s birth—­
      Through the love in a girl!

Paraphrased, the meaning will not prove as simple as the verses:  Here is a finger ring set with one small stone, one jewel.  It is a very cheap-looking stone to common eyes.  But if you know a certain magical word, and, after putting the ring on your finger, you whisper that magical word over the cheap-looking stone, suddenly a spirit, a demon or a genie, springs from that gem like a flash of fire miraculously issuing from a lump of ice.  And that spirit or genie has power to make you king of the whole world and of the sky above the world, lord of the spirits of heaven and earth and air and fire.  Yet the stone is only—­a pearl—­and it can make you lord of the universe.  That is the old Arabian story.  The word scroll here means a manuscript, an Arabian manuscript.

But what is after all the happiness of mere power?  There is a greater happiness possible than to be lord of heaven and earth; that is the happiness of being truly loved.  Here is a woman; to the eye of the world, to the sight of other men, she is not very beautiful nor at all remarkable in any way.  She is just an ordinary woman, as the pearl in the ring is to all appearances just a common pearl.  But let the right word be said, let the soul of that woman be once really touched by the magic of love, and what a revelation!  As the spirit in the Arabian story sprang from the stone of the magical ring, when the word was spoken, so from the heart of this woman suddenly her soul displays itself in shining light.  And the man who loves, instantly becomes, in the splendour of that light, verily the lord of heaven and earth; to the eyes of the being who loves him he is a god.