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Coventry Patmore - The Angel In The House. Book I. Canto III.
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Preludes

I The Lover 
              He meets, by heavenly chance express,
              The destined maid; some hidden hand
              Unveils to him that loveliness
              Which others cannot understand.
              His merits in her presence grow,
              To match the promise in her eyes,
              And round her happy footsteps blow
              The authentic airs of Paradise.
              For joy of her he cannot sleep;
               Her beauty haunts him all the night;
               It melts his heart, it makes him weep
               For wonder, worship, and delight.
               O, paradox of love, he longs,
               Most humble when he most aspires,
               To suffer scorn and cruel wrongs
               From her he honours and desires.
               Her graces make him rich, and ask
               No guerdon; this imperial style
               Affronts him; he disdains to bask,
               The pensioner of her priceless smile.    
               He prays for some hard thing to do,
               Some work of fame and labour immense,
               To stretch the languid bulk and thew
               Of love`s fresh-born magnipotence.
               No smallest boon were bought too dear,
               Though barter`d for his love-sick life;
               Yet trusts he, with undaunted cheer,
               To vanquish heaven, and call her Wife.
               He notes how queens of sweetness still
               Neglect their crowns, and stoop to mate;
               How, self-consign`d with lavish will,
               They ask but love proportionate;
               How swift pursuit by small degrees,
               Love`s tactic, works like miracle;
               How valour, clothed in courtesies,
               Brings down the haughtiest citadel;
               And therefore, though he merits not
               To kiss the braid upon her skirt,
               His hope, discouraged ne`er a jot,
               Out-soars all possible desert.

II Love a Virtue 
               Strong passions mean weak will, and he
               Who truly knows the strength and bliss
               Which are in love, will own with me
               No passion but a virtue `tis.
               Few hear my word; it soars above
               The subtlest senses of the swarm
               Of wretched things which know not love,
               Their Psyche still a wingless worm.
               Ice-cold seems heaven`s noble glow
               To spirits whose vital heat is hell;
               And to corrupt hearts even so
               The songs I sing, the tale I tell.    
               These cannot see the robes of white
               In which I sing of love. Alack,
               But darkness shows in heavenly light,
               Though whiteness, in the dark, is black!

III Unthrift 
               Ah, wasteful woman, she who may
               On her sweet self set her own price,
               Knowing man cannot choose but pay,
               How has she cheapen`d paradise;
               How given for nought her priceless gift,
               How spoil`d the bread and spill`d the wine,
               Which, spent with due, respective thrift,
               Had made brutes men, and men divine.

IV The Attainment 
               You love? That`s high as you shall go;
               For `tis as true as Gospel text,
               Not noble then is never so,
               Either in this world or the next.


Honoria.  

 I
               Grown weary with a week`s exile
               From those fair friends, I rode to see
               The church-restorings; lounged awhile,
               And met the Dean; was ask`d to tea,
               And found their cousin, Frederick Graham,
               At Honor`s side. Was I concern`d,
               If, when she sang, his colour came,
               That mine, as with a buffet, burn`d?
               A man to please a girl! thought I,
               Retorting his forced smiles, the shrouds
               Of wrath, so hid as she was by,
               Sweet moon between her lighted clouds!

II 
               Whether this Cousin was the cause
               I know not, but I seem`d to see,
               The first time then, how fair she was,
               How much the fairest of the three.
               Each stopp`d to let the other go;
               But, time-bound, he arose the first.
               Stay`d he in Sarum long? If so
               I hoped to see him at the Hurst.
               No: he had call`d here, on his way
               To Portsmouth, where the ‘Arrogant,’
               His ship, was; he should leave next day,
               For two years` cruise in the Levant.

II 
               Had love in her yet struck its germs?
               I watch`d. Her farewell show`d me plain    
               She loved, on the majestic terms
               That she should not be loved again.
               And so her cousin, parting, felt.
               Hope in his voice and eye was dead.
               Compassion did my malice melt;
                Then went I home to a restless bed.
                I, who admired her too, could see
                His infinite remorse at this
                Great mystery, that she should be
                So beautiful, yet not be his,
                And, pitying, long`d to plead his part;
                But scarce could tell, so strange my whim,
                Whether the weight upon my heart
                Was sorrow for myself or him.

 IV
                She was all mildness; yet `twas writ
                In all her grace, most legibly,
                ‘He that`s for heaven itself unfit,
                ‘Let him not hope to merit me.’
                And such a challenge, quite apart
                From thoughts of love, humbled, and thus
                To sweet repentance moved my heart,
                And made me more magnanimous,
                And led me to review my life,
                Inquiring where in aught the least,
                If question were of her for wife,
                Ill might be mended, hope increas`d.
                Not that I soar`d so far above
                Myself, as this great hope to dare;
                And yet I well foresaw that love
                Might hope where reason must despair;
                And, half-resenting the sweet pride
                Which would not ask me to admire,
                ‘Oh,’ to my secret heart I sigh`d,
                ‘That I were worthy to desire!’


 V
                As drowsiness my brain reliev`d,
                A shrill defiance of all to arms,
                Shriek`d by the stable-cock, receiv`d
                An angry answer from three farms.
                And, then, I dream`d that I, her knight,
                A clarion`s haughty pathos heard,
                And rode securely to the fight,
                Cased in the scarf she had conferr`d;
                And there, the bristling lists behind,
                Saw many, and vanquish`d all I saw
                Of her unnumber`d cousin-kind,
                In Navy, Army, Church, and Law;
                Smitten, the warriors somehow turn`d
                To Sarum choristers, whose song,
                Mix`d with celestial sorrow, yearn`d
                With joy no memory can prolong;
                And phantasms as absurd and sweet
                Merged each in each in endless chace,
                And everywhere I seem`d to meet
                The haunting fairness of her face.
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