Jean Ingelow

"Crowds of bees are giddy with clover Crowds of grasshoppers skip at our feet, Crowds of larks at their matins hang over, Thanking the Lord for a life so sweet."

"Let me be only sure; for sooth to tell The sorest dole is doubt."

"Man dwells apart, though not alone, He walks among his peers unread; The best of thoughts which he hath known, For lack of listeners are not said."

"When our thoughts are born, Though they be good and humble, one should mind How they are reared, or some will go astray And shame their mother."

"But two are walking apart forever And wave their hands for a mute farewell."

"Is there never a chink in the world above Where they listen for words from below?"

"The while He sits whose name is Love, And waits, as Noah did, for the dove, To wit if she would fly to him.He waits for us, while, houseless things, We beat about with bruised wings On the dark floods and water-springs, The ruined world, the desolate sea; With open windows from the prime All night, all day, He waits sublime, Until the fulness of the time Decreed from His eternity."

"And sweeter woman neer drew breath Than my sonnes wife, Elizabeth."

"Learn that to love is the one way to know, Or God or man: it is not love received That maketh man to know the inner life Of them that love him; his own love bestowed Shall do it."

"Reign, and keep life in this our deep desire— Our only greatness is that we aspire."

"Like coral insects multitudinous The minutes are whereof our life is made. They build it up as in the deeps blue shade It grows, it comes to light, and then, and thus For both there is an end."

"Man is the miracle in nature. God Is the One Miracle to man. Behold, "There is a God," thou sayest. Thou sayest well: In that thou sayest all. To Be is more Of wonderful, than being, to have wrought, Or reigned, or rested."