I said-''Tis very late we meet;
'A guest long since has filled each seat
'About my hearth; yet rest
'A little while beside the door;
'Although the east shall glow no more,
'Some light is in the west,
'And gathers round the wayside inn,
'Whence all the mountain paths begin:
'Pause, ere you onward go,
'And sing, while gazing up the height,
'The guarded valley of delight
'We both have left below.'
Was it not somewhat thus, my friend?-
But now your rest has reached its end,
And upwards you must strive.
Ah now I thank you that you stayed,
That you so royally repaid
All that I had to give.
For the sweet temperance of your youth,
Unconscious chivalry and truth,
And simple courtesies;
A soul as clear as southern lake,
Yet strong as any cliffs that break
The might of northern seas;
For these I loved you well,-and yet
Could neither you nor I forget,
But spent we soberly
The autumn days, that lay between
The skirts of glory that had been,
Of glory that should be.
Unlike the month of snowy flowers,
Unlike my April's rainbowed showers,
My consummate July
Those autumn days; and yet they wept
Tears soft not sad, for all they kept
Of summer's greenery.
We loved the tarn with rocky shore,
We loved to tread the windy moor,
And many a berried lane;
But most where, swollen with rains and rills,
The waters of a hundred hills
Go hurrying down the plain;
Where plenteous apples wax and fall,
And stud o'er many a leafy hall
The vaults with fiery gems:
But often through their golden gleams
Flowed-in the river of my dreams,
The lilied river Thames.
Then on another arm I leant,
And then once more with him I went
Thro' field and wharf and town;
And love caught up the flying hours,
And eyes that were not calm as yours
Were imaged in my own.
A grave good-bye I bid you now;
Not lightly, but as those who know
Fair hospitality.
O loyal heart, be loyal still,
And happy, happy where you will,
And sometimes think of me.