But let me pause or ere I cover All my treasures darkly over: I will speak not in thine ears, Only tell my beaded tears Silently, most silently. When the last is calmly told, Let that same moist rosary With the rest sepùlchred be, Finished now! The darksome mould Sealeth up the darksome pit. I will lay no stone on it, Grasses I will sow instead, Fit for Queen Titania's tread; Flowers, encoloured with the sun, And ~ai ai~ written upon none; Thus, whenever saileth by The Lady World of dainty eye, Not a grief shall here remain, Silken shoon to damp or stain: And while she lisps, "I have not seen Any place more smooth and clean" ... Here she cometh!--Ha, ha!--who Laughs as loud as I can do? _EARTH AND HER PRAISERS._ I. The Earth is old; Six thousand winters make her heart a-cold; The sceptre slanteth from her palsied hold. She saith, "'Las me! God's word that I was 'good' Is taken back to heaven, From whence when any sound comes, I am riven By some sharp bolt; and now no angel would Descend with sweet dew-silence on my mountains, To glorify the lovely river fountains That gush along their side: I see--O weary change!--I see instead This human wrath and pride, These thrones and tombs, judicial wrong and blood, And bitter words are poured upon mine head-- 'O Earth! thou art a stage for tricks unholy, A church for most remorseful melancholy; Thou art so spoilt, we should forget we had An Eden in thee, wert thou not so sad!' Sweet children, I am old! ye, every one, Do keep me from a portion of my sun. Give praise in change for brightness! That I may shake my hills in infiniteness Of breezy laughter, as in youthful mirth, To hear Earth's sons and daughters praising Earth." II. Whereupon a child began With spirit running up to man As by angels' shining ladder, (May he find no cloud above!) Seeming he had ne'er been sadder All his days than now, Sitting in the chestnut grove, With that joyous overflow Of smiling from his mouth o'er brow And cheek and chin, as if the breeze Leaning tricksy from the trees To part his golden hairs, had blown Into an hundred smiles that one. III.