Why, as a volume seldom read
Being opened halfway shuts again,
160 So might the pages of her brain
Be parted at such words, and thence
Close back upon the dusty sense.
For is there hue or shape defin'd
In Jenny's desecrated mind,
165 Where all contagious currents meet, A Lethe8 of the middle street?
Nay, it reflects not any face,
Nor sound is in its sluggish pace, But as they coil those eddies0 clot, small whirlpools And night and day remember not.
Why, Jenny, you're asleep at last!?
Asleep, poor Jenny, hard and fast,?
So young and soft and tired; so fair,
With chin thus nestled in your hair,
175 Mouth quiet, eyelids almost blue
As if some sky of dreams shone through!
Just as another woman sleeps!
Enough to throw one's thoughts in heaps
Of doubt and horror,?what to say
i8o Or think,?this awful secret sway,
The potter's power over the clay!
Of the same lump (it has been said)
For honour and dishonour made,9
Two sister vessels. Here is one.
7. Street in London frequented by prostitutes. 9. Romans 9.21: 'Hath not the potter power over 8. The river of forgetfulness in the Greek under-the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto world. Gutters in London often ran through the honor, and another unto dishonor?' middle of the street.
.
JENNY / 1453
185 My cousin Nell is fond of fun,
And fond of dress, and change, and praise,
So mere a woman in her ways:
And if her sweet eyes rich in youth
Are like her lips that tell the truth,
190 My cousin Nell is fond of love.
And she's the girl I'm proudest of.
Who does not prize her, guard her well?
The love of change, in cousin Nell,
Shall find the best and hold it dear:
195 The unconquered mirth turn quieter Not through her own, through others' woe:
The conscious pride of beauty glow
Beside another's pride in her,
One little part of all they share.
200 For Love himself shall ripen these
In a kind soil to just increase
Through years of fertilizing peace. Of the same lump (as it is said)
For honour and dishonour made,
205 Two sister vessels. Here is one. It makes a goblin1 of the sun. So pure,?so fall'n! How dare to think
Of the first common kindred link?
