Ah, thou bearest greetings to me
From a being pure as thou,
Whom I called my spirit’s spirit,
Once with many a loving vow;
She who taught me to discover
Love that lurks in sorrow’s smart;
Now, if I but think upon her
Sudden stillness fills my heart.
III.
There stands the ancient gabled house;
The rooms therein how well I know!
They’re still as once they were, when first
I loved there, long ago.
But, like the moon, times change, and hearts,
And strangers now the dwelling claim;
Another passion fills my breast;
Yet is the house the same.
Today I went there to the feast;
Some memory made my bosom stir,
I heeded not the song and jest,
I only thought of her,—
Of all that we had meant to be,
Of all my vanisht youthful years,
And of the love that filled her eyes,—
Till mine o’erflowed with tears.
And when I roused me from the thought,
Alas, how changed did all things seem!
As though that dream had been my life,
And all my life a dream.