Wherefore is this? I see the stars returning,
Fire after fire in heaven’s rich temple burning:
Fast shine they forth—my spirit-friends, my guides,
Bright rulers of my being’s inmost tides;
They shine—but faintly, through a quivering haze:
Oh! is the dimness mine which clouds those rays?
They from whose glance my childhood drank delight!
A joy unquestioning—a love intense—
They that, unfolding to more thoughtful sight
The harmony of their magnificence,