VI.
Still ebbed, still flowed the tide of years,
Now chilled with snows, now bright with roses,
And many smiles were turned to tears,
And sombre morns to radiant closes.
VII.
And many ships came gliding by,
With many a golden promise freighted:
But nevermore from sea or sky
Came love to bless her heart that waited.
VII.
Yet on, by tender patience led,
Her sacred footsteps walked unbidden,
Wherever sorrow bows its head,
Or want and care and shame are hidden.
IX.
And they who saw her snow-white hair,
And dark, sad eyes, so deep with feeling,
Breathed all at once the chancel air,
And seemed to hear the organ pealing.
X.
Till once, at shut of autumn day,
In marble chill she paused and harkened,
With startled gaze where far away
The waste of sky and ocean darkened.
XI.
There, for a moment, faint and wan,
High up in air, and landward striving,
Stern-fore a spectral barque came on,
Across the purple sunset driving.
XII.
Then something out of night she knew,
Some whisper heard, from heaven descended,
And peacefully as falls the dew
Her long and lonely vigil ended.
XIII.
The violet and the bramble-rose
Make glad the grass that dreams above her;
And freed from time and all its woes,
She trusts again the word of lover.
William Winter.