Poems (Greenwell)/VIII
VIII.
Thou camest in a dream,—So sudden taken from my life that now 'Mid all Earth's strangeness, it would strangest seem To feel thy hand meet mine in greeting,—Thou That clasped it once so close! but seas have swept Between us, silken Spring-times have unrolled Their bursting green, wild Autumns shaken gold Upon our paths, since last I looked on thee; And on our Life's great organ suddenly Have keys gone silent, whence the music rolled In blissful waves; but still through manifold Swift change and dreary pause our hearts have kept (Like quiet watchers left in peace to hold A tryst with Thought, while others deemed they slept) The steadfast secret of our Love untold.
Together and alone We stood: they have not loved who have not known What meaning lies in those two words—alone, Together and alone!
And ever went a dash Of tinkling, chiming waters through my dream, As of a brook that sends a quiet flash Through tangled boughs, and ever golden brown From wet bright stone to stone goes lapsing down; There oft we stood with hands together locked, And lips whose gay and wandering converse mocked The deeper oracles that ran below Light words, light leaves, clear waters in their flow— Till through those wood-aisles dim A breath of soul, a consecration-hymn Rose gradual on the summer's sunset glow.
Then came an hour that tore Our lives asunder, but within my dream Far, far away did change and parting seem As waves that chide upon some distant shore; Our hands were locked, our lips—we did not speak, Our very souls were locked,—we did not seek For word, or look, or outward token more; It was not Heaven, because we were not glad, It was not Earth, no future made us sad, But in a calm, unshadowed land between, Our spirits loosened from their bonds terrene Did meet, and commune in a language clear,Of things that they had known and suffered here—And I awoke and knew thou hadst been near!