The Human Tragedy Author:Alfred Austin General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1876 Original Publisher: Blackwood Subjects: History / General Literary Criticism / Poetry Poetry / General Poetry / American / General Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and ... more »there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: TO H. J. A. Three graces still attend me, since the day Your step across my graceless threshold came : Reverence, and Gratitude, and Love, their name. Reverence, whose gaze fears from the ground to stray, And bows its head, and sues to you to lay Your foot thereon, and keep my base self down : Next, Gratitude, that, bolder, by degrees Creeps up the folds of wedlock's rescuing gown, To make a circling fondness round your knees; And lastly, Love, which from that low perch sees Chaste lips, and tender eyes, and tresses brown, And, darting upward, finds a home with these. So stand we level in that high embrace, And I have all your glory on my face. ACT I. ACT I. Protagonist: Love. Pi. ace: Engi. and. Time : June -- November 1857. THE HUMAN TRAGEDY. ACT I. 0 Love, undying Love! eternal Star, That, risen ere the dawn of earthly suns, Dost never set! That, as now near, now far, Its fickle course each paler passion runs, Burnest on high, fixed where the Immortals are, Beacon and bourne of us wayfaring ones ! Elder than all the Nine ! descend, and give Soul to my strings, that they may breathe and live ! II. For, and thou knowest if I boast or lie, I through the years thy votary have been, From the first tumult of the boyish sigh, Till this ripe hour, when now I dwell serene, Now and henceforth, in light that cannot die, Poured from thy sphere, O Patroness and Queen ! ...« less