human
image is singularly frequent in this volume. The poet seems haunted by the idea of the barrier walls, which keep off the public gaze, but admit the privileged spirit. In _Fears and Scruples_ it symbolises the reticence of God. In _Appearances_ the
gpt
in which troth was plighted and the
human
in which
gpt
become half human in sympathy. A woman's
human
makes the bare walls she dwells in a
gpt
of verdure and song. The prologue seems deliberately to strike this note, with its exquisite idealisation of the old red brick wall and its creepers lush and lithe,--a formidable barrier indeed, but one which spirit and love can pass. For here the
human
I--prison-bird, with a ruddy strife At breast, and a life whence storm-notes start-- Hold on, hope hard in the subtle thing That's spirit: though cloistered fast, soar free; Account as wood, brick, stone, this ring Of the rueful neighbours, and--forth to thee!