The Poetical Works of George MacDonald (Volumes I and II‪)‬

Receive thine own; for I and it are thine.

  Thou know'st its story; how for forty days—

  Weary with sickness and with social haze,

  (After thy hands and lips with love divine

  Had somewhat soothed me, made the glory shine,

  Though with a watery lustre,) more delays

  Of blessedness forbid—I took my ways

  Into a solitude, Invention's mine;

  There thought and wrote, afar, and yet with thee.

  Those days gone past, I came, and brought a book;

  My child, developed since in limb and look.

  It came in shining vapours from the sea,

  And in thy stead sung low sweet songs to me,

  When the red life-blood labour would not brook.