University of Virginia Library


126

TOO LATE.

Love has its morn, its noon, its eve, its night.
We never had the noontide,—never knew
The deep, intense, illimitable blue
Of fervid, mid-day heavens, making bright
With princely liberality of light
Waters the water-lily trembles through;
But, in the evening's shadow did we two
Set out to gain Love's farthest, fairest height.
O love! too late, too late for this we met;
The goal was near, the nightfall nearer yet.
One star of Memory lightens in our track,
And all the rest is dark; I will go back,—
Back to the paths we walked in, and there stay,
Until I change them for the silent way.