XXXV.

Oh, could we live in visions! could we hold

Delusion faster, longer, to our breast,

When it shuts from us, with its mantle’s fold,

That which we see not, and are therefore blest!

But they, our loved and loving—they to whom

We have spread out our souls in joy and gloom,

Their looks and accents, unto ours address’d,

Have been a language of familiar tone

Too long to breathe, at last, dark sayings and unknown.