THE SOLITUDE OF LIFE by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES

WHEN Fancy's exhalations rise
From youth's delicious morn,
Our eyes seem made for others' eyes,
Spirit for spirit born:
But time the truthful faith controuls, --
We learn too soon, alas!
How wide the gulf between two souls,
How difficult to pass!

In twilight and in fearfulness
We feel our path along
From heart to heart, yet none the less
Our way is often wrong.
And then new dangers must be faced,
New doubts must be dispelled, --
For not one step can be retraced
That once the past has held.

To some 'tis given to walk awhile
In Love's unshaded noon,
But clouds are gathering while they smile,
And night is coming soon!
Most happy he whose journey lies
Beneath the starlight sheen
Of unregretful memories
Of glory that has been.

We live together years and years,
And leave unsounded still
Each other's springs of hopes and fears,
Each other's depths of will:
We live together day by day,
And some chance look or tone
Lights up with instantaneous ray
An inner world unknown.

Then wonder not that they who love
The longest and the best,
Are parted by some sudden move
Of passion or unrest:
Nor marvel that the wise and good
Should oft apart remain,
Nor dare, when once misunderstood,
To sympathise again.

Come, Death! and match thy quiet gloom
With being's darkling strife,
Come set beside the lonely Tomb
The Solitude of Life;
And henceforth none who see can fear
Thy hour, which some will crave,
Who feel their hearts, though beating here,
Already in the grave.

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