The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Wild air, world-mothering air,
Nestling me everywhere.
‘The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe’ (written 1883)
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc ùnselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.
‘Binsey Poplars’ (written 1879)
Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;
Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man
In me or, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.
‘Carrion Comfort’ (written 1885)
That night, that year
Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.
‘Carrion Comfort’ (written 1885)
Towery city and branchy between towers;
Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarméd, lark-charméd, rook-racked, river-rounded.
‘Duns Scotus’s Oxford’ (written 1879)
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out like shining from shook foil...
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
‘God’s Grandeur’ (written 1877)
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
‘God’s Grandeur’ (written 1877)
Elected Silence, sing to me
And beat upon my whorléd ear,
Pipe me to pastures still and be
The music that I care to hear.
‘The Habit of Perfection’ (written 1866)
Palate, the hutch of tasty lust,
Desire not to be rinsed with wine:
The can must be so sweet, the crust
So fresh that come in fasts divine!
‘The Habit of Perfection’ (written 1866)