VI <br />We lack, yet cannot fix upon the lack: <br />Not this, nor that; yet somewhat, certainly. <br />We see the things we do not yearn to see <br />Around us: and what see we glancing back? <br />Lost hopes that leave our hearts upon the rack, <br />Hopes that were never ours yet seem’d to be, <br />For which we steer’d on life’s salt stormy sea <br />Braving the sunstroke and the frozen pack. <br />If thus to look behind is all in vain, <br />And all in vain to look to left or right, <br />Why face we not our future once again, <br />Launching with hardier hearts across the main, <br />Straining dim eyes to catch the invisible sight, <br />And strong to bear ourselves in patient pain? <br /> <br />IX <br />Star Sirius and the Pole Star dwell afar <br />Beyond the drawings each of other’s strength: <br />One blazes through the brief bright summer’s length <br />Lavishing life-heat from a flaming car; <br />While one unchangeable upon a throne <br />Broods o’er the frozen heart of earth alone, <br />Content to reign the bright particular star <br />Of some who wander or of some who groan. <br />They own no drawings each of other’s strength, <br />Nor vibrate in a visible sympathy, <br />Nor veer along their courses each toward <br />Yet are their orbits pitch’d in harmony <br />Of one dear heaven, across whose depth and length <br />Mayhap they talk together without speech.<br /><br />Christina Georgina Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/from-later-life/
