Ix

Memories of other days,-- Sad with whilom happiness,-- Rise before my musing gaze In the twilight.... And your dress Seems beside me, like a haze Shimmering white; as when we went 'Neath the star-strewn firmament, Love-led, with impatient feet Down the night that, summer-sweet, Sparkled o'er the lamp-lit street. Every look you gave me then Comes before my eyes again, Making music for my heart On that path where once for us Roses, red and amorous, Grew, the roses red of love: Roses, that are dead enough On that path now! whence oft start Out of recollected places, With remembered forms and faces, Dreams of love, like figures, woven In my life's dark tapestry, Beckoning, ever shadowy, To my soul still.--O'er the cloven Gulf of time I seem to hear Words once whispered in my ear, Calling--as might friends long dead, With familiar voices deep, Call to one who lies asleep, Comforting.--So was I led Backward to forgotten things, Contiguities that spread Sudden, unremembered wings: And across my mind's still blue, From the nest they fledged in, flew Dazzling shapes that passion knew.