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Robert Browning: Poems

Natural Magic


All I can say is--I saw it!

The room was as bare as your hand.

I locked in the swarth little lady,--I swear,

From the head to the foot of her--well, quite as bare!

"No Nautch deg. shall cheat me," said I, "taking my stand deg.5

At this bolt which I draw!" And this bolt--I withdraw it,

And there laughs the lady, not bare, but embowered

With--who knows what verdure, o'erfruited, o'erflowered?

Impossible! Only--I saw it!


All I can sing is--I feel it! 10

This life was as blank as that room;

I let you pass in here. Precaution, indeed?

Walls, ceiling, and floor,--not a chance for a weed!

Wide opens the entrance: where's cold, now, where's gloom?

No May to sow seed here, no June to reveal it,

Behold you enshrined in these blooms of your bringing,

These fruits of your bearing--nay, birds of your winging!

A fairy-tale! Only--I feel it!

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