Robert Browning

What Youth deemed crystal, Age finds out was dew.

What Youth deemed crystal, Age finds out was dew.

All June I bound the rose in sheaves,
Now, rose by rose, I strip the leaves.

All June I bound the rose in sheaves,
Now, rose by rose, I strip the leaves.

For thence,--a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks,--
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
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For thence,--a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks,--
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts me:
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.

Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a ribbon to stick in his coat;
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Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a ribbon to stick in his coat;
Found the one gift of which Fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she lets us devote.