At Long Bay
Five years ago! you cannot chooseBut know the face of change,Though July sleeps and Spring renewsThe gloss in gorge and range.
Five years ago! I hardly knowHow they have slipped away,Since here we watched at ebb and flowThe waters of the Bay;
And saw, with eyes of little faith,From cumbered summits fadeThe 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 outUnthankful similes.
But let it be! I’ve often saidHis lot was hardly castWho never turned a happy headTo an unhappy Past—
Who never turned a face of lightTo cares beyond recall:He only fares in sorer plightWho hath no Past at all!
So take my faith, and let it standBetween us for a signThat five bright years have known the landSince yonder tumbled line
Of seacliff took our troubled talk—The words at random thrown,And Echo lived about this walkOf gap and slimy stone.
Here first we learned the Love which leavesNo lack or loss behind,The dark, sweet Love which woos the evesAnd haunts the morning wind.
And roves with runnels in the dell,And houses by the waveWhat time the storm hath struck the fellAnd Terror fills the cave—
A Love, you know, that lives and liesFor moments past control,And mellows through the Poet’s eyesAnd sweetens in his soul.
Here first we faced a briny breeze,What time the middle galeWent shrilling over whitened seasWith flying towers of sail.
And here we heard the plovers callAs shattered pauses came,When Heaven showed a fiery wallWith sheets of wasted flame.
Here grebe and gull and heavy gledePassed 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.