TO A DISTANT FRIEND.
INSCRIBED TO D. E. L.
"There are wonders in true affection."
Religio Medici.
Religio Medici.
I knew not ye were sad,
Dear distant friends of mine! Across the sea
Ye sent me only tidings making glad,
And all was gladness round; for Life to me
Had grown a summer's day, whose very air
Was luxury to breathe, and on Love's fair
Smooth forehead lurked no folded plait of care;
Yet, borne I knew not whence, a sadness stole,
Disquieting the music of my soul
With dreary change; as one that, feasting high
At some great banquet, feels a tremor chill
Pass o'er him, and, grown sudden pale and still,
Sets down his brimming goblet with a sigh,
So all the wine of my felicity
Was mixed with tears! oh, strange that now the cup
Should shrink within itself, and narrow up
For fulness poured within it! dark distrust
Was this of God, and servile fear, unjust
To Love's ungrudging sunshine: I would pray,
And so this heaviness should pass away;
Dear distant friends of mine! Across the sea
Ye sent me only tidings making glad,
And all was gladness round; for Life to me
Had grown a summer's day, whose very air
Was luxury to breathe, and on Love's fair
Smooth forehead lurked no folded plait of care;
Yet, borne I knew not whence, a sadness stole,
Disquieting the music of my soul
With dreary change; as one that, feasting high
At some great banquet, feels a tremor chill
Pass o'er him, and, grown sudden pale and still,
Sets down his brimming goblet with a sigh,
So all the wine of my felicity
Was mixed with tears! oh, strange that now the cup
Should shrink within itself, and narrow up
For fulness poured within it! dark distrust
Was this of God, and servile fear, unjust
To Love's ungrudging sunshine: I would pray,
And so this heaviness should pass away;
