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199

ALL LOVES IN ONE

Only in day-dreams do I dream of thee!
By day our Past moves ever by my side,
A mystic Presence of majestic mien,
In samite clad white as its stainless soul,—
And eyes like his who sought the Holy Grail.
By day, by day, O thou beloved and lost!
Under the hidden current of my life
The thought of thee runs ever, tingeing all
With its own color, even as the sky
Lends its own azure to the sleeping lake.
By day, by day, the soft airs breathe thy name;
The strong winds bear it on their mighty wings;
The whispering pines repeat it to their kin;
Each flower speaks of thee, and the red rose breaks
Its box of precious ointment at thy feet.

200

All times are thine. All seasons are thine own;
The joy of spring, fair summer's golden prime,
Autumn's rich splendor, and the winter snows;—
The flush of dawn, noontide, and lengthening shades,
Sunset and moonrise and the evening star.
All poets sing of thee. All tender lays
Of ancient minstrelsy seem born of thee;
Music high-soaring to the gates of Heaven,
The martial drum, the trumpet's long appeal,
The requiem low,—taps, and the last salute.
[OMITTED]
Only in day-dreams dream I now of thee!
Once when night came and my glad soul sprang free
From the close bonds of sense, I dreamed and dreamed!
I was a young child sitting at thy knee
And shyly groping for thy tender hand;
Thy mother, in all humble, household ways
Ministering to thee, bringing food and wine;
Thy comrade, reading from the self-same book
And conning life's hard lessons, one by one;
Thy friend, thy lover, giving kiss for kiss.

201

And sometimes through the world of dreams there swept,
Like the swift shadows over meadow grass,
Such strange, fantastic visions that I laughed
And wept—all in one breath! How will it be
When after life's long dream I sleep indeed?