HERE's my case. Of old I used to love him, This same unseen friend, before I knew: Dream there was none like him, none above him, -- Wake to hope and trust my dream was true. Loved I not his letters full of beauty? Not his actions famous far and wide? Absent, he would know I vowed him duty; Present, he would find me at his side. Pleasant fancy! for I had but letters, Only knew of actions by hearsay: He himself was busied with my betters; What of that? My turn must come some day. "Some day" proving -- no day! Here's the puzzle. Passed and passed my turn is. Why complain? He's so busied! If I could but muzzle People's foolish mouths that give me pain! "Letters?" (hear them!) "You a judge of writing? Ask the experts! How they shake the head O'er these characters, your friend's inditing -- Call them forgery from A to Z! "Actions? Where's your certain proof" (they brother) "He, of all you find so great and good, He, he only, claims this, that, the other Action -- claimed by men, a multitude?" I can simply wish I might refute you, Wish my friend would, -- by a word, a wink, -- Bid me stop that foolish mouth, -- you brute you! He keeps absent, -- why, I cannot think. Never mind! Though foolishness may flout me, One thing's sure enough: 't is neither frost, No, nor fire, shall freeze or burn from out me Thanks for truth -- though falsehood, gained -- though lost. All my days, I'll go the softlier, sadlier, For that dream's sake! How forget the thrill Through and through me as I thought "The gladlier Lives my friend because I love him still!" Ah, but there's a menace some one utters! "What and if your friend at home play tricks? Peep at hide-and-seek behind the shutters? Mean your eyes should pierce through solid bricks? "What and if he, frowning, wake you, dreamy? Lay on you the blame that bricks -- conceal? Say 'At least I saw who did not see me, Does see now, and presently shall feel'?" "Why, that makes your friend a monster!" say you: "Had his house no window? At first nod, Would you not have hailed him?" Hush, I pray you! What if this friend happened to be -- God? |