Sunlit Hours — Tell Me, Oh My Tranquil Friend

XX

Tell me, oh my tranquil friend, How absence of a day untuned And brought our song of love to end, And wakened every sleeping wound.

I go to meet all those that come From out that land of mystery Where thou did'st go toward the red sun-rise;

Beneath a tree I sit, and cold and dumb, Down the long road spy eagerly;

And long I look with fervour on the eyes Still lustrous with the sight of thee;

I'd kiss those fingers, for thy touch less wearisome;

I'd utter words whose meaning none perceive;

But, dumb, I listen, hear their footfalls reach The shadows where the aged eve Holds the black night in leash.