Early Poems (1859-70). At Long Bay
Five years ago! you cannot choose But know the face of change, Though July sleeps and Spring renews The gloss in gorge and range. Five years ago! I hardly know How they have slipped away, Since here we watched at ebb and flow The waters of the Bay; And saw, with eyes of little faith, From cumbered summits fade The rainbow and the rainbow wraith, That shadow of a shade. For Love and Youth were vext with doubt, Like ships on driving seas, And in those days the heart gave out Unthankful similes. But let it be! I've often said His lot was hardly cast Who never turned a happy head To an unhappy Past— Who never turned a face of light To cares beyond recall: He only fares in sorer plight Who hath no Past at all! So take my faith, and let it stand Between us for a sign That five bright years have known the land Since yonder tumbled line Of seacliff took our troubled talk— The words at random thrown, And Echo lived about this walk Of gap and slimy stone. Here first we learned the Love which leaves No lack or loss behind, The dark, sweet Love which woos the eves And haunts the morning wind. And roves with runnels in the dell, And houses by the wave What time the storm hath struck the fell And Terror fills the cave— A Love, you know, that lives and lies For moments past control, And mellows through the Poet's eyes And sweetens in his soul. Here first we faced a briny breeze, What time the middle gale Went shrilling over whitened seas With flying towers of sail. And here we heard the plovers call As shattered pauses came, When Heaven showed a fiery wall With sheets of wasted flame. Here grebe and gull and heavy glede Passed eastward far away, The while the wind, with slackened speed, Drooped with the dying Day. And here our friendship, like a tree, Perennial grew and grew, Till you were glad to live for me, And I to live for you.
Henry Kendall’s other poems:
