(A friend of early days.)
You saw, my friend, when last we met, Time’s sober reckoning on my face; But neither time nor change of place Can cause my spirit to forget One honest throb, one living trace Of friendship, till life’s sun shall set,—
Such friendship as I’ve found in you,— A glory that unites and binds The poetry of kindred minds, Forever stedfast, ever true.
The years are drifting fast and far; We half-way hear the haunted river Whose monody is, Never, never! We half-discern the misty bar Past which no soul returneth ever; Our lamp is not the morning star.
Nor can we of our lot complain; We’ve had of bliss an ample share; We banquet on ambrosial fare And nectar wines of heart and brain.
No heritage of goods or lands We owe to an ancestral line; Obedient to the voice divine, We earn our bread with willing hands.
No drones nor parasites are we; And hence brave comrade, you and I Can lift our foreheads to the sky And plead our lawful right, to be,— To be, enjoy, and sternly try To leave the world more fair and free
Than when upon its round we fell,— Two feeble rays that wandered far From nebula, or hidden star— Whence? wherefore? whither? who can tell?
We only know that we are here, That life is brief and death is sure; That it is noble to endure, And keep the eye of conscience clear. Will love and knowledge ever cure The evils of this troubled sphere?
We look in Nature’s face, and doubt Whether she means us good or ill; We know that she can stab and kill, And blow our taper-joys all out.