Written in Answer to a Sonnet Ending Thus

Blue! ’Tis the life of heaven,⁠—the domain
  Of Cynthia,⁠—the wide palace of the sun,⁠—
The tent of Hesperus, and all his train,⁠—
  The bosomer of clouds, gold, gray, and dun.
Blue! ’Tis the life of waters⁠—ocean
  And all its vassal streams, pools numberless,
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
  Subside, if not to dark blue nativeness.
Blue! Gentle cousin of the forest-green,
  Married to green in all the sweetest flowers,⁠—
Forget-me-not,⁠—the blue bell,⁠—and, that queen
  Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great,
When in an Eye thou art, alive with fate!