The voyage it lights no longer, ends
Soon on a foreign shore;
How can I but recall the friends,
Whom I may see no more?
Fresh from the pain it was to part—
How could I bear the pain?
Yet strong the omen in my heart
That says—We meet again.
Meet with a deeper, dearer love,
For absence shows the worth
Of all from which we then remove,
Friends, home, and native earth.
Thou lovely polar star, mine eyes
Still turned the first on thee,
Till I have felt a sad surprise
That none looked up with me.
But thou hast sunk below the wave,
Thy radiant place unknown;
I seem to stand beside a grave.
And stand by it alone.
Farewell!—ah, would to me were given
A power upon thy light,
What words upon our English heaven
Thy loving rays should write!
Kind messages of love and hope
Upon thy rays should be;
Thy shining orbit would have scope
Scarcely enough for me.
Oh, fancy vain as it is fond,
And little needed too,
My friends! I need not look beyond
My heart to look for you!
L. E. L.
