To-day, perhaps, wandering in starry places,

He hath met Keats, and known him by his eyes.

To-morrow (who can say) Shakespeare may pass—

And our lost friend just catch one syllable

Of that three-centuried wit that kept so well—

Or Milton, or Dante, looking on the grass

Thinking of Beatrice, and listening still

To chanted hymns that sound from the heavenly hill.

(1181)

FUTURE, THE