| |
| ONCE before, this self-same air | |
| Passed me, though I know not where. | |
| Strange! how very like it came! | |
| Touch and fragrance were the same; | |
| Sound of mingled voices, too, | 5 |
| With a light laugh ringing through; | |
| Some one moving,—here or there,— | |
| Some one passing up the stair, | |
| Some one calling from without, | |
| Or a far-off childish shout,— | 10 |
| Simple, home-like, nothing more, | |
| Yet it all hath been before! | |
| |
| No: not to-day, nor yesterday, | |
| Nor any day! But far away— | |
| So long ago, so very far. | 15 |
| It might have been on other star. | |
| How was it spent? and where? and when? | |
| This life that went, yet comes again? | |
| Was sleep its world, or death its shore? | |
| I still the silent Past implore. | 20 |
| Ah! never dream had power to show | |
| Such vexing glimpse of Long Ago. | |
| Never a death could follow death | |
| With love between, and home, and breath. | |
| |
| The spell has passed. What spendthrifts we, | 25 |
| Of simple, household certainty! | |
| What golden grain we trample low | |
| Searching for flowers that never grow! | |
| Why, home is real, and love is real; | |
| Nor false our honest high ideal. | 30 |
| Life,—it is bounding, warm, and strong,— | |
| And all my heart resounds with song. | |
| It must be true, whate’er befall, | |
| This and the world to come are all. | |
| And yet it puzzles me—alack!— | 35 |
| When life that could not be, comes back! | |
| |
