University of Virginia Library

TO A FRIEND.

Of all the many memories we have sown,
We two together, and seen arise in flowers,
Whose roots go deep into the past sweet hours,
Which one, when all the rest are overblown,
Shall we still water and tend with constant care?
Ah, fellow-watcher many a long night through,
For me, I were most fain to think of you
Pale as so many a dawn with me you were,
Just when the night turned chill, and the grey air
Found all things fallen on sleep, and wet with dew;
And on your soul the solemn past hours weighed,
Those marvellous hours through which you had waked with me,
Watching the tender moonlight and soft shade,
Like wavering love-thoughts which vague doubts invade,
Irresolute on the sweet breast of the sea,
All the night long; until we turned to mark,
Over long lines of dim hills far away,
The slow grey grow into the Eastern dark,
And the slow faffron grow into the grey.
Leave Chance to garden all meaner memories!
Let hope and triumph, let defeat and care,
Let outworn loves, dimmed eyes and faded hair,
Rouse if they will remorse, or smiles or sighs;
So that we still may ponder how all of these
Shrank back abashed before those moonlit seas,
And the grey calm of those far-dawning skies!