LAST WORDS.
(To the one who has always first read everything I have written.)
How can I tell thee, dear, what never words
Have fitly told? How ope my heart to thee
Wherein thou might'st, as in a well, perceive
Deep down but the mere shadow of my love?
But as the wind sweeps from the icy north
To some lov'd isle in dim Pacific seas,
Or as the never-ceasing circling waves
Follow round earth the radiant orb of night,
So follow I with love unspeakable
The pathways fill'd with light which are thine own.
O love, thou art the flame that burns for me,
My steady purpose! That no dark can quench!
Holding thy hand I fear no more to watch
The shifting of the changeful lights of Fate.
