Page:In memoriam (IA inmemoriam00tennrich).pdf/159

 But when those others, one by one, Withdrew themselves from me and night, And in the house light after light Went out, and I was all alone,

A hunger seized my heart; I read Of that glad year which once had been, In those fall'n leaves which kept their green, The noble letters of the dead:

And strangely on the silence broke The silent-speaking words, and strange Was love's dumb cry defying change To test his worth; and strangely spoke

The faith, the vigour, bold to dwell On doubts that drive the coward back, And keen thro' wordy snares to track Suggestion to her inmost cell.

So word by word, and line by line, The dead man touch'd me from the past, And all at once it seem'd at last His living soul was flash'd on mine,