JUNE 365 



on modern Italian sculpture : ' Trying to be grand by 

 bigness and pathetic by expense.' 



Who that has ever been there does not share that 

 pining for the beauty and sunshine of the South ? It is 

 common to so many natures, and almost universally 

 expressed by the poets. The return need of the South for 

 the strengthening influence of the North I have rarely 

 read in prose or poetry. Mrs. Browning seems to have 

 realised that there is such a need : 



' Now give us lands where the Olives grow,' 



Cried the North to the South, 

 4 Where the sun with a golden mouth can blow 

 Blue bubbles of grapes down a vineyard-row ! ' 



Cried the North to the South. 



' Now give us men from the sunless plain,' 



Cried the South to the North, 

 ' By need of work in the snow and the rain 

 Made strong, and brave by familiar pain ! ' 



Cried the South to the North. 



' Give lucider hills and intenser seas,' 



Cried the North to the South, 

 ' Since ever by symbols and bright degrees 

 Art, child-like, climbs to the dear Lord's knees,' 

 Said the North to the South. 



' Give strenuous souls for belief and prayer,' 



Said the South to the North, 

 ' That stand in the dark on the lowest stair, 

 While affirming of God, " He is certainly there," ' 



Said the South to the North. 



' Yet oh ! for the skies that are softer and higher,' 



Sighed the North to the South ; 

 ' For the flowers that blaze, and the trees that aspire 

 And the insects made of a song or a fire,' 



Sighed the North to the South. 



' And oh ! for a seer to discover the same,' 



Sighed the South to the North ; 

 ' For a Poet's tongue of baptismal flame, 

 To call the tree or the flower by its name,' 

 Sighed the South to the North, 



