The Silence of Love :: :: University of Virginia Library

The mists rise upward from the Ocean's breast,
And high in æther vanish from the view,
Till by the chilling winds embraced, caressed,
They change to clouds and drift across the blue:—
Drift far away, drift landward, till at last,
Leaving behind them the unmeasured main,
O'er hill and valley borne by breeze or blast,
They weep themselves to earth in showers of rain:
Thence swept along by dancing beck or burn
Into the river's ever-widening course,

Back to the depths of ocean they return,
And stay their wanderings in their primal source.
So flows eternally from birth to grave,
From death to life, love's world-embracing wave.