In The Cathedral ’twas. The service o’er

Friends introduced us, passed, and said no more,

And we were left alone, strangers as yet.

A sad monastic gloom on you was set.

I sensed your thirst for life, more life, yet more—

And I, too, was athirst because I wore

The slave’s badge that so sharply helps to whet.

I went not home. I loathed the narrow streets.

I longed for country lanes, deep peace of air.

I left the black-roofed city, hastened where