Part 48 (1/2)

Then, though you cannot shut a stricken face Away from you, this hope will come about That Christ hath sent again throughout the place Some signs of Love to worst and weaken doubt.

So you may find in every afterthought A peace beyond your best expression dear; And haply hearken to the Voice which wrought Such strength in Peter on the seas of fear!

To----

Ah, often do I wait and watch, And look up, straining through the Real With longing eyes, my friend, to catch Faint glimpses of your white Ideal.

I know she loved to rest her feet By slumbrous seas and hidden strand; But mostly hints of her I meet On moony spots of mountain land.

I've never reached her s.h.i.+ning place, And only cross at times a gleam; As one might pa.s.s a fleeting face Just on the outside of a Dream.

But you may climb, her happy Choice!

She knows your step, the maiden true, And ever when she hears your voice, She turns and sits and waits for you.

How sweet to rest on breezy crest With such a Love, what time the Morn Looks from his halls of rosy rest, Across green miles of gleaming corn!

How sweet to find a leafy nook, When bees are out, and Day burns mute, Where you may hear a pa.s.sion'd brook Play past you, like a mellow flute!

Or, turning from the sunken sun, On fields of dim delight to lie-- To close your eyes and muse upon The twilight's strange divinity!

Or through the Night's mysterious noon, While Sound lies hushed among the trees, To sit and watch a mirror'd moon Float over silver-sleeping seas!

Oh, vain regret! why should I stay To think and dream of joys unknown?

You walk with her from day to day, I faint afar off--and alone.

At Long Bay

Five years ago! you cannot choose But know the face of change, Though July sleeps and Spring renews The gloss in gorge and range.

Five years ago! I hardly know How they have slipped away, Since here we watched at ebb and flow The waters of the Bay;

And saw, with eyes of little faith, From c.u.mbered summits fade The rainbow and the rainbow wraith, That shadow of a shade.

For Love and Youth were vext with doubt, Like s.h.i.+ps on driving seas, And in those days the heart gave out Unthankful similes.

But let it be! I've often said His lot was hardly cast Who never turned a happy head To an unhappy Past--

Who never turned a face of light To cares beyond recall: He only fares in sorer plight Who hath no Past at all!

So take my faith, and let it stand Between us for a sign That five bright years have known the land Since yonder tumbled line

Of seacliff took our troubled talk-- The words at random thrown, And Echo lived about this walk Of gap and slimy stone.