Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/252

 246 OVER THE LAKE.

��OVER THE LAKE.

OVER the lake lies a silver mist, The last good-bye of the sunset kissed, Trailing its veil on the line of blue,

far-off home, nearer me, than you !

Blithe little waves, as they run ashore, Babble of faces I see no more ; While over them all, with oars adrip, A boat comes in from a fairy ship.

A fairy craft that awaits no tide,

1 call at will from the other side,

To leave the breath of the far salt sea, With cargo marked and consigned to me.

Dear eyes there are on its deck ashine, Warm hands I clasp, as I used, in mine ; Low, gentle words by the firelight said, And tender tears for the early dead

Sunshiny places, where Life and I Laid care and sorrow and sighing by, Where light and love and the summer, made Green islands bright in a sea of shade.

These are the treasures upon her deck ; No storm can shatter or typhoon wreck ; This is the ship that I wait to see Sailing, still sailing, in shore to me.

�� �