And yet its acrid husks a kernel keep
Sweeter than honey of Hymettian bee.
SONNETS IN SHADOW.
XVIII.
T IKE to a coin, passing from hand to hand,
-■-^ Are common memories, and day by day

The sharpness of their impress wears away.
But love's remembrances unspoiled withstand

The touch of time, as in an antique land
Where some proud town old centuries did slay,
Intaglios buried lie, still in decay

Perfect and precious spite of grinding sand.
What fame or joy or sorrow has been ours,

What we have hoped or feared, we may forget.
The clearness of all memory time deflours.
Save that of love alone, persistent yet

Though sure oblivion all things else devours.
Its tracings firm as when they first were set



SONNETS IN SUA DO IV,



XIX.
T N our remembrances one poignant thought
-*■ Will haunt us still, as may some single note

Wail from the horns, then murmur from the throat
Of hautboys sad, and yet again be caught

By shrilling viols, with all passion fraught ;

Now high, now low, now near, and now remote,
Over the tide of sound seeming to float,

As all without that tone must come to naught.
How deep is woe if memory's key-note be

Not sweet, but sad with wrong's remembered ache
Lost joy we weep, but what repentant plea

From memory of wrong the sting can take !
The weight of grief may not crush utterly,
But with remorse the bravest heart must break.
SONNETS IN SHADOW.
XX.
I.
