Then forth sprang Gabriel’s wings, off fell
The flesh disguise, remained the cell.

’Twas Easter day:  he flew to Rome,
And paused above Saint Peter’s dome.

In the tiring-room close by
The great outer gallery, 50

With his holy vestments dight,
Stood the new Pope, Theocrite: 

And all his past career
Came back upon him clear,

Since when, a boy, he plied his trade,
Till on his life the sickness weighed;

And in his cell, when death drew near,
An angel in a dream brought cheer: 

And rising from the sickness drear,
He grew a priest, and now stood here. 60

To the East with praise he turned,
And on his sight the angel burned.

“I bore thee from thy craftsman’s cell,
And set thee here; I did not well.

“Vainly I left my angel-sphere,
Vain was thy dream of many a year,

“Thy voice’s praise seemed weak; it dropped—­
Creation’s chorus stopped!

“Go back and praise again
The early way, while I remain. 70

“With that weak voice of our disdain,
Take up creation’s pausing strain.

“Back to the cell and poor employ: 
Resume the craftsman and the boy!”

Theocrite grew old at home;
A new Pope dwelt in Peter’s dome.

One vanished as the other died: 
They sought God side by side.

* * * * *

MEMORABILIA

Ah, did you once see Shelley plain,
  And did he stop and speak to you,
And did you speak to him again? 
  How strange it seems and new!

But you were living before that,
  And also you are living after;
And the memory I started at—­
  My starting moves your laughter!

I crossed a moor with a name of its own
  And a certain use in the world, no doubt, 10
Yet a hand’s-breadth of it shines alone
  ’Mid the blank miles round about.

For there I picked upon the heather
  And there I put inside my breast
A moulted feather, an eagle-feather! 
  Well, I forget the rest.

* * * * *

WHY I AM A LIBERAL

“Why?” Because all I haply can and do,
  All that I am now, all I hope to be,—­
  Whence comes it save from fortune setting free
Body and soul the purpose to pursue,
God traced for both?  If fetters, not a few,
  Of prejudice, convention, fall from me,
  These shall I bid men—­each in his degree
Also God-guided—­bear, and gayly too? 
  But little do or can the best of us: 
That little is achieved thro’ Liberty. 10
  Who then dares hold, emancipated thus,
His fellow shall continue bound? not I,
  Who live, love, labour freely, nor discuss
A brother’s right to freedom.  That is “Why.”