Volume II Part 34 (1/2)

_L. E. L.'S LAST QUESTION._

”Do you think of me as I think of you?”

(_From her poem written during the voyage to the Cape._)

I.

”Do you think of me as I think of you, My friends, my friends?”--She said it from the sea, The English minstrel in her minstrelsy, While, under brighter skies than erst she knew, Her heart grew dark, and groped there as the blind To reach across the waves friends left behind-- ”Do you think of me as I think of you?”

II.

It seemed not much to ask--”as _I_ of _you_?”

We all do ask the same; no eyelids cover Within the meekest eyes that question over: And little in the world the Loving do But sit (among the rocks?) and listen for The echo of their own love evermore-- ”Do you think of me as I think of you?”

III.

Love-learned she had sung of love and love,-- And like a child that, sleeping with dropt head Upon the fairy-book he lately read, Whatever household noises round him move, Hears in his dream some elfin turbulence,-- Even so suggestive to her inward sense, All sounds of life a.s.sumed one tune of love.

IV.

And when the glory of her dream withdrew, When knightly gestes and courtly pageantries Were broken in her visionary eyes By tears the solemn seas attested true,-- Forgetting that sweet lute beside her hand, She asked not,--”Do you praise me, O my land?”

But,--”Think ye of me, friends, as I of you?”

V.

Hers was the hand that played for many a year Love's silver phrase for England, smooth and well.

Would G.o.d her heart's more inward oracle In that lone moment might confirm her dear!

For when her questioned friends in agony Made pa.s.sionate response, ”We think of thee,”