If loving thee still more and more, And still so willing to be blind, Of love, and left the empty rind; If the poor lifeless words, at last, (The soul gone, that was once so sweet,) Should cease my eager heart to cheat, And crumble back into the past, And show the whole a vain deceit ; If I should see thee turn away, And know that prayer, and time, and pain, Could no more thy lost love regain, Than bid the hours of dying day Gleam in their mid-day noon again. If I should loose thy hand, and know By the dull throbbing of my heart. If I should gaze and gaze in vain And read the truth of all my fear If not to grieve thee overmuch, The ghost of my dead Past would rise Or even to the eternal skies, For I should still be lonely there. All Truth, all Honour, then would seem All Trust, a folly doomed to die; All Life, a useless empty dream ; All Love-since thine had failed—a lie. But see, thy tender smile has cast My fear away: this thought of mine Is treason to my Love and thine; For Love is Life, and Death at last Crowns it eternal and divine! RECOLLECTIONS. S strangers, you and I are here; We both as aliens stand, Where once, in years gone by, I dwelt No stranger in the land. Then while you gaze on park and stream, Let me remain apart, And listen to the awakened sound And by the flower-beds all around, Bright roses bloom and fade ; Shrill merry childish laughter rings, And baby voices sweet, And by me, on the path, I hear The tread of little feet. Down the dark avenue of limes, Whose perfume loads the air, And the quick questioning that brought Such gentle calm replies. Still the light bridge hangs o'er the lake, Where broad-leaved lilies lie, And the cool water shows again The cloud that moves on high ; And one voice speaks, in tones I thought The past for ever kept; But now I know, deep in my heart I hear, within the shady porch I might have striven, and striven in vain, Such visions to recall, Well known and yet forgotten; now The Present pales before the Past, Who comes with angel wings; As in a dream I stand, amidst Enough, so let us go, mine eyes |