Discussing how their courtship grew, And back we come at fall of dew. Again the feast, the speech, the glee, The shade of passing thought, the wealth The crowning cup, the threc-times-three, And last the dance ;—till I retire: Dumb is that tower which spake so loud, And on the downs a rising fire: And rise, O moon, from yonder down, And pass the silent-lighted town, The white-faced halls, the glancing rills, Their sleeping silver thro' the hills; And touch with shade the bridal doors, To spangle all the happy shores By which they rest, and ocean sounds, And strike his being into bounds, And, moved thro' life of lower phase, Betwixt us and the crowning race Of those that, eye to eye, shall look On knowledge; under whose command Is Nature like an open book; No longer half-akin to brute, For all we thought and loved and did, Of what in them is flower and fruit; Whereof the man, that with me trod This planet, was a noble type Appearing ere the times were ripe, That friend of mine who lives in God, That God, which ever lives and loves, One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event, To which the whole creation moves. THE END. |