Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/444

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a scanty board too late; The old-time guests for whom I wait
 * Come few and slow, methinks, to-day.

Ah! who could hear my messages Across the dim unsounded seas
 * On which so many have sailed away!

Come, then, old friends, who linger yet, And let us meet, as we have met,
 * Once more beneath this low sunshine;

And grateful for the good we ’ve known, The riddles solved, the ills outgrown,
 * Shake hands upon the border line.

The favor, asked too oft before, From your indulgent ears, once more
 * I crave, and, if belated lays

To slower, feebler measures move, The silent sympathy of love
 * To me is dearer now than praise.

And ye, O younger friends, for whom My hearth and heart keep open room,
 * Come smiling through the shadows long.

Be with me while the sun goes down, And with your cheerful voices drown
 * The minor of my even-song.

For, equal through the day and night, The wise Eternal oversight
 * And love and power and righteous will