WHO'S THAT?

WHO'S that? Who's that?...

Oh, only a leaf on the stone;

And the sigh of the air in the fire.

Yet it seemed, as I sat,

Came company—not my own;

Stood there, with ardent gaze over dark, bowed shoulder thrown

Till the dwindling flames leaped higher,

And showed fantasy flown.

Yet though the cheat is clear—

From transient illusion grown;

In the vague of my mind those eyes

Still haunt me. One stands so near

I could take his hand, and be gone:—

No more in this house of dreams to sojourn aloof, alone:

Could sigh, with full heart, and arise,

And choke, 'Lead on.'