O Death, too tardy with thy hope intense Of kisses close beyond conceit of sense; O Life, too liberal, while to take her hand Is more of hope than heart can understand; Perturb my golden patience not with joy, Nor, through a wish, profane The peace that should pertain To him who does by her attraction move. Had all not been before? One day’s controllèd hope, and one again, And then the third, and ye shall have the rein, O Life, Death, Terror, Love! But soon let your unrestful rapture cease, Ye flaming Ethers thin, Condensing till the abiding sweetness win One sweet drop more; One sweet drop more in the measureless increase Of honied peace. These are not seventeenth-century verse, but they are striking examples of Victorian verse worked upon by two main influences from the seventeenth century, and they bring Patmore representatively into line on the one hand with the “florid and flowing schemes” of Tennyson, and on the other with the “stiffer movement and graver tones” of Arnold. And that outside both these he was also subject to the instincts of Browning’s characteristic manner the following poem will show. A woman is a foreign land, Of which, though there he settle young, A man will ne’er quite understand The customs, politics and tongue. The foolish hie them poste-haste thro’, See fashions odd and prospects fair, Learn of the language _How d’ye do?_ And go and brag they have been there. The most for leave to trade apply For once at Empire’s seat, her heart, Then get what knowledge ear and eye Glean chancewise in the life-long mart. And certain others, few and fit, Attach them to the Court and see The Country’s best, its accent hit, And partly sound its Polity. Chapter VIII _Conclusion of Part I_