O for the face and footstep! woods and shores That looked upon us in life's happiest flush, That saw our figures breaking from the brush; That heard our voices calling through the bowers, How are ye darkened! Deepest tears upgush From the heart's heart, gathering more and more Blindness and strangling tears, as now before Your shades I stand and find ye still so fair. And thou, sad mountain stream, thy stretches steal Through fern and flag as when we gathered flowers Along thy reeds and shallows cold, or where-- Over the red reef with a rolling roar-- The woods through glimmering gaps of green reveal, Sideward, the river turning like a wheel. |