University of Virginia Library

Here it was I saw her last:
When the farewells all were said,
Through the garden speeding fast
She o'ertook me breathless, led
By some gentle after-thought,
That she spoke not yet, but smiled
As I stooped to set me free
From a wild-briar clinging, “See,
This kind weed to stay thee sought,
Yet wilt thou break from it and me;”
Then she clasped me, smiling still
Through the shining of a tear,
“Come and go, dear friend, at will,
Comfort still thou leavest here;
Should the future days bereave,
Never with a chiding sore
Can the bygone bid us grieve
That we loved not in them more!”

So we parted where we stood
In the ancient gateway; then
As I hurried down the wood,
Once I turned to look again
Where she stood, in life and bloom,
With the summer sunshine kind
Streaming round her, in the gloom
Of the massive arch enshrined;
To her feet the shadows crept
From the grey and ruined stone,
And her form from out them swept
Like an Apparition thrown
On the sunny air—the light
Smote her forehead—even now
Bides that vision in my sight
With the halo on its brow!
Even so, within my heart
Ever young and fond and fair
Stands she in her shrine, apart
From the ruins round her there;
Glides her image through its gloom
In a quiet track of light,
As within a darkened room
Soft a straggling sunbeam falls
On the ceiling, on the walls,
Finding nothing else so bright!

Dark the castle stands above,
Dark the river onward floweth,
Murmuring as one that knoweth
Somewhat of my grief and love.
Nay! the river nothing knoweth,
Ever floweth, ever speedeth,
Nothing heedeth as it floweth,
Of all my heart hath missed and needeth;
Murmur, murmur, still unknowing,
Murmur, murmur, in thy flowing,
None the less will fond believing
Link thy chiding with my grieving.
Since we walked beside thy stream,
Oft 'mid summer musings lost
I have dreamed a deeper dream;
She a deeper stream hath crossed,—
Crossed it singing! once of old
Dark and swift that river flowed
Sunless, to an unknown sea;
And the nations shivering stood
On the margin of the flood,
Sorely pressed behind,—before
Lay a dim and doubtful shore;
Till a Helper, at the cry
Of a world in agony,
With a garment dipped in blood,
Smote the waters as He passed
On a glorious errand;—fast
Hither, thither backwards drew
All the sullen waves, and through
Came His ransomed! King and Priest,
Sage and warrior, virgin mild,
And the Slave from bonds released,
And the mother with her child,
From the greatest to the least,
Crossed it singing! but to me
As I watched that company,
Strong and beautiful and bold
Seemed they all, and I was weak,
And the river still was cold,
And the country far to seek!
But since Thou didst leave my side,
Following after, with my tear
Still upon thy cheek undried,
Seems the river far less wide,
And the hither shore more near:
Ever more that shore was dear
For the sake of one unseen,
So He shows me it more clear
By the light of what had been,
For like lichen on the stone
Ever round each well-known thing
Still this heart of mine hath grown,
Firm to fix and close to cling:
So God beckons by a Hand
I have clasped, unto His land;
So He bids its Dawn arise
On me, through beloved eyes;
So the new, unearthly song
Seems a strain remembered long;
With the angel voices blend
Tones familiar, seraphs wear
Looks I loved on earth; oh, friend,
Kind companion, Thou art there!