To----

As round a lighthouse swept of sea and air The waves plunge many fathom deep, and flow Unresting o’er the rocky base below, And glimmer shifting in the fitful glare; So great unrest about thy heart doth go, So deep a flood of turbulent despair.

Stand true, O tender heart and strong, stand true: For I, who steer alone across the deep, By thee, unknown of thee, my course must keep O’er the foam-crested fields for ever new; And thou, alone, unknowing, on the steep, Must watch the waves with ruin all bestrew.

Not overnear to thee my course may run; Yet pray I, somewhere on the bitter tide Thy beam the shuddering night for me divide, And show the heart-red splendour of thy sun Reorient with delight upon the wide Waters of gloomy death when life is done.

1871.