BY W. HORRY STILWELL.
A sister's love I did not ask from thee,
Though that were much—oh, more than earth hath given;
None live to bear that gentle name for me,
Though one may lisp it now, perchance, in Heaven.
I know not even, for I never felt,
The quiet yearnings of such love as this;
Thou should'st have known a deeper feeling dwelt
In the rapt glow of that impassioned kiss!
"I had no wish a brother's love to share"—
I did not read thy features dreamingly,
And peer into thine eye's deep azure, there
Searching another's depths, in revery!
I did not press, all passionless, thy hand
Or idly dally with thy taper finger,
Or coldly gaze, for I could not withstand
The high and holy hope which bade me linger!
I was not thinking of another then,
In thy sweet face her features imaging,
Tracing each thought-print o'er them—watching when
Hope's earnest breathings to my lips might spring;
Nor this—nor fame—though her ascending star
Might shed its glory in a halo o'er me;
No thought like this, that moment, rose to mar
The vision that in beauty stood before me!
But it was marr'd, for even then the feeling
Came o'er me, that thou never couldst be mine!
And in the cloud of sadness, gently stealing
Like a dim shadow o'er that brow of thine,
I read my destiny. Oh! life can bring
No darker doom—no wo that may inherit
So much of bitterness—no rack to ring
With deeper agony, my fainting spirit.
To dwell, in thought, upon one image still,
Till it becomes a portion of our being,
Hath fix'd its features in the eye, until
It hath become a part of sight—thus seeing,
Even in tree, and rock, and rill, and flower,
A form of borrow'd beauty, and a spell—
A spirit of unspeakable heart—power—
To move the waters in our soul's deep well!
Till every thought, that like a wavelet, breaks
Upon the surface of life's charmed pool,
Circling instinctively, unbidden, takes
Form, hue, direction, from that magic rule!
What is it but the yearning of the soul
Toward one allied to it by heavenly birth?
And seeking to unite, blend, melt the whole
Into one miracle of love on earth!
Such have my feelings been—thy soul to mine
Came robed in radiance of such heavenly hue,
My spirit clasped it as a thing divine;
And while I dreamed they into oneness grew,
I suddenly awaked, to know that vision
Had not appeared to any one but me!
Why did I learn, waked from that dream elysian,
A sister's love was all I shared with thee!