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| BEAUTIFUL Evelyn Hope is dead! | |
| Sit and watch by her side an hour. | |
| That is her book-shelf, this her bed; | |
| She plucked that piece of geranium-flower, | |
| Beginning to die too, in the glass. | 5 |
| Little has yet been changed, I think; | |
| The shutters are shut,—no light may pass | |
| Save two long rays through the hinge’s chink. | |
| |
| Sixteen years old when she died! | |
| Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name,— | 10 |
| It was not her time to love; beside, | |
| Her life had many a hope and aim, | |
| Duties enough and little cares; | |
| And now was quiet, now astir,— | |
| Till God’s hand beckoned unawares, | 15 |
| And the sweet white brow is all of her. | |
| |
| Is it too late, then, Evelyn Hope? | |
| What! your soul was pure and true; | |
| The good stars met in your horoscope, | |
| Made you of spirit, fire, and dew; | 20 |
| And just because I was thrice as old, | |
| And our paths in the world diverged so wide, | |
| Each was naught to each, must I be told? | |
| We were fellow-mortals,—naught beside? | |
| |
| No, indeed! for God above | 25 |
| Is great to grant as mighty to make, | |
| And creates the love to reward the love; | |
| I claim you still, for my own love’s sake! | |
| Delayed, it may be, for more lives yet, | |
| Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few; | 30 |
| Much is to learn and much to forget | |
| Ere the time be come for taking you. | |
| |
| But the time will come—at last it will— | |
| When, Evelyn Hope, what meant, I shall say, | |
| In the lower earth,—in the years long still,— | 35 |
| That body and soul so pure and gay? | |
| Why your hair was amber I shall divine, | |
| And your mouth of your own geranium’s red,— | |
| And what you would do with me, in fine, | |
| In the new life come in the old one’s stead. | 40 |
| |
| I have lived, I shall say, so much since then, | |
| Given up myself so many times, | |
| Gained me the gains of various men, | |
| Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes; | |
| Yet one thing—one—in my soul’s full scope, | 45 |
| Either I missed or itself missed me,— | |
| And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope! | |
| What is the issue? let us see! | |
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| I loved you, Evelyn, all the while; | |
| My heart seemed full as it could hold,— | 50 |
| There was place and to spare for the frank young smile, | |
| And the red young mouth, and the hair’s young gold. | |
| So, hush! I will give you this leaf to keep; | |
| See, I shut it inside the sweet, cold hand. | |
| There, that is our secret! go to sleep; | 55 |
| You will wake, and remember, and understand. | |
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