Page:Poems Hornblower.djvu/166

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154

Brief time had fled—yet the shade had past
O'er my heart and life since I stood there last;
Some best beloved had fled away,
To a calmer shore and a brighter day;
And all life seemed, to my tear-dimmed eye,
As brief as the waves that glided by.

The evening shades fell chill and cold,
But my heart was filled with the dreams of old:
The gentle sound of the waters' moan,
To my memory recalled a lovelier tone,
For the setting sun, which o'er me fell,
Shone again the eyes I had loved so well.

All fled—all fled—yet I shed no tear,
I stood in faith and in calmness there;
O'er my troubled spirit the shadows rose,
But one gaze above brought my heart repose:
My lost and my loved were there, and I,
I breathed to the evening gale one sigh!