“Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end.”

“In the bleak mid-winterFrosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron,Water like a stone;Snow had fallen, snow on snow,Snow on snow,In the bleak mid-winterLong ago.”

“In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, Snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago. ”

“O where are you going with your love-locks flowingOn the west wind bellowing along this valley track?”“The downhill path is easy, come with me an it please ye,We shall escape the uphill by never turning back.”So they two went together in glowing August weather,The honey-breathing heather lay to their left and right;And dear she was to doat on, her swift feet seemed to float onThe air like soft twin pigeons too sportive to alight.“Oh, what is that in heaven where grey cloud-flakes are seven,Where blackest clouds hang riven just at the rainy skirt?”“Oh, that’s a meteor sent us, a message dumb, portentous,An undeciphered solemn signal of help or hurt>”“Oh, what is that glides quickly where velvet flowers grow thickly,Their scent comes rich and sickly?” “A scaled and hooded worm.””Oh, what’s that in the hollow, so pale I quake to follow?”“Oh, that’s a thin dead body which waits the eternal term.”“Turn again, O my sweetest,--turn again, false and fleetest:This beaten way thou beatest, I fear is hell’s own track.”“Nay, too steep for hill mounting; nay, too late for cost counting:This downhill path is easy, but there’s no turning back.”

“Golden head by golden head,Like two pigeons in one nestFolded in each other's wings,They lay down in their curtained bed:Like two blossoms on one stem,Like two flakes of new-fall'n snow,Like two wands of ivoryTipped with gold for awful kings.Moon and stars gazed in at them,Wind sang to them lullaby,Lumbering owls forbore to fly,Not a bat flapped to and froRound their rest:Cheek to cheek and breast to breastLocked together in one nest.”

“Yet come to me in dreams, that I may liveMy very life again though cold in death;Come back to me in dreams, that I may givePulse for pulse, breath for breath:Speak low, lean low,As long ago, my love, how long ago”

“For there is no friend like a sisterIn calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray,To lift one if one totters down, To strengthen whilst one stands”