PREVIOUS EDITIONS 1. Bks. I-IV. Clarendon Press. Geo. Bell & Sons, Oct. 1890. Reprinted, Nov. 1890, 1891, 1894. 2. Bks. I-V. Private Press of H. Daniel. 3. Do. do. Oxford, 1894. Clarendon Press. George Bell & Sons, 1896. 4. Cheap issue of 3. 1899. Reprinted, 1899. 5. Poetical works of R. B. Smith, Elder & Co., 1899, vol. 11. An account of earlier issues of first four books is given in notes at end of 5. SHORTER POEMS BOOK I DEDICATED TO H. E. W. I ELEGY CLEAR and gentle stream! Clear and gentle stream! Where my old seat was Here again I sit, Where the long boughs knit Over stream and grass A translucent eaves: Where back eddies play Out of stream and sun, In their chosen pool. Many an afternoon First the deep bell hums From the minster tower, Of her brightening moon. Clear and gentle stream! Ere again I go Where thou dost not flow, Well does it beseem Thee to hear again Once my youthful song, That familiar strain Silent now so long: Be as I content And my idle dream, 2 ELEGY THE Wood is bare: a river-mist is steeping That lie upon the dank earth brown and rotten, Yet it was here we walked when ferns were springing, 'Twas here we loved in sunnier days and greener; I come to see her where I most have seen her, For on this path, at every turn and corner, So through my heart there winds a track of feeling, About her steps the trunks are bare, the branches And bleed from unseen wounds that no sun stanches, |