The Golden Threshold/Poems/Past and Future
PAST AND FUTURE
The new hath come and now the old retires:
And so the past becomes a mountain-cell,
Where lone, apart, old hermit-memories dwell
In consecrated calm, forgotten yet
Of the keen heart that hastens to forget
Old longings in fulfilling new desires.
And now the Soul stands in a vague, intense
Expectancy and anguish of suspense,
On the dim chamber-threshold . . . lo! he sees,
Like a strange, fated bride as yet unknow,
His timid future shrinking there alone,
Beneath her marriage-veil of mysteries.