TIME LONG PAST. 251 TIME LONG PAST. LIKE the ghost of a dear friend dead A tone which is now forever fled, There were sweet dreams in the night And, was it sadness or delight, Each day a shadow onward cast Which made us wish it yet might last- There is regret, almost remorse, For time long past. 'Tis like a child's beloved corse P. B. Shelley. 252 A LAMENT. A LAMENT. I STAND where I last stood with thee! There is not a leaf on the trysting tree; When shalt thou be once again what thou wert? Have they a morrow? Here we stood, ere we parted, so close side by side; Ah, never can fall from the days that have been E. Bulwer, Lord Lytton. FROM the close-shut windows gleams no spark; The poplars shiver, the pine-trees moan, The darkness is pressing coldly around, The world is happy, the world is wide, O, 'tis a bitter and dreary word, The saddest by man's ear ever heard! Must we for ever, then, be alone? Alone, alone, ah woe! alone! J. R. Lowell. 254 THE LOST HORIZON. THE LOST HORIZON. I STOOD at evening in the crimson air: And moaned like Atlas with his world of woe. Like the great circle of a bronzèd ring That clasped the vision of the vanished day, I saw the vague horizon vanishing Then, while the night came fast with cloudy roar, I sighed: "The wanderer in the desert sees "For erst, where now the desert far away Stretches a wilderness of hopeless sand, I thought of a sweet mirage now no more: A face that to the darkness, lighted, came. ASSOCIATIONS. No hearth of mine was waiting, near or far; The darkened windows slowly lost their fire, John James Piatt. 255 ASSOCIATIONS. You know the place is just the same! To dwell among the moated lilies. The trifoly is on the walls: The daisies in the bowling alley: The iris blows from court to court: The terrace where she used to walk Still shines at noon between the roses: The garden-paths are blind with chalk: The dragonfly from stalk to stalk Swims sparkling blue till evening closes. |