 | Poems in many lands |  |
89
ΕΡΑΝ ΤΩΝ ΑΔΥΝΑΤΩΝ.
So now I know we shall not any more,
As we have done in these last golden days,
Go hand in hand along life's pleasant ways,
Walk heart with heart together as before.
As we have done in these last golden days,
Go hand in hand along life's pleasant ways,
Walk heart with heart together as before.
It seems we cannot choose but wear the chain
Fate winds about our little lives. Ah sweet,
What wall is set between us that your feet
Must wander alway where I gaze in vain!
Fate winds about our little lives. Ah sweet,
What wall is set between us that your feet
Must wander alway where I gaze in vain!
Could we have climbed together! How these bars
Had melted in the fire of love; the road
Had known our footsteps where the wise men trod,
And our sure ways had ended with the stars!
Had melted in the fire of love; the road
Had known our footsteps where the wise men trod,
And our sure ways had ended with the stars!
We had atoned for passion!—passed above
All fleeting shadows of the world's desire,
Made pure our spirits at a holier fire,
And in the lap of morning laid our love.
All fleeting shadows of the world's desire,
Made pure our spirits at a holier fire,
And in the lap of morning laid our love.
90
One law I knew, one right, one starward way,
One hope to make our lives divine, one love
In this one life, one star of truth above,
And one great desert where the rest go stray.
One hope to make our lives divine, one love
In this one life, one star of truth above,
And one great desert where the rest go stray.
Life had no more to give, if that we two
Had let the world go gladly, grasp and reach
Strained ever upward, leaning each on each,
Had seen one star-ray of the pure and true.
Had let the world go gladly, grasp and reach
Strained ever upward, leaning each on each,
Had seen one star-ray of the pure and true.
Had we but climbed together! Oh my light,
My star, my moon, and art thou clouded o'er?
And we that were together, evermore
Must stand apart and stare across the night!
My star, my moon, and art thou clouded o'er?
And we that were together, evermore
Must stand apart and stare across the night!
One life it seems must take its tale of days,
And as it may make service of its own,
But ah! the infinite help of love!—alone
The heart grows faint and weary of dispraise.
And as it may make service of its own,
But ah! the infinite help of love!—alone
The heart grows faint and weary of dispraise.
I shall be braver on the way I go,
Hearing that voice forever, for whose sake,
What burthen had I not bowed down to take,
What shame or peril, had it helped you so!
Hearing that voice forever, for whose sake,
What burthen had I not bowed down to take,
What shame or peril, had it helped you so!
91
This must content me, to have loved, who lose
In this hard world where little loves live on,
No man will love you as I might have done,
Sweet heart, too holy for the world to choose!
In this hard world where little loves live on,
No man will love you as I might have done,
Sweet heart, too holy for the world to choose!
Therefore be strong, remembering love's past,
Climb on for ever in the steep old way
That haply so a moment's space we may
Meet on the verge of changes at the last.
Climb on for ever in the steep old way
That haply so a moment's space we may
Meet on the verge of changes at the last.
That at the end of all these journeyings,
Crossing the borderland of time and space
We two may stand together face to face,
Whose hearts were set upon abiding things,
And through the cloud-veil of Eternity
Our eyes may meet at last in the full light, and see.
Crossing the borderland of time and space
We two may stand together face to face,
Whose hearts were set upon abiding things,
And through the cloud-veil of Eternity
Our eyes may meet at last in the full light, and see.
| Poems in many lands | |