Page:The Garden of Years.djvu/31



But each doubt fled as swift as it appeared;

And, day by day, I grew to understand

The heart of him who long his death hath feared,

And, sudden, sees the stately palms upreared

Of some oasis in a desert land.

Yet, even as that far green across the sand

Cheered the dry way of my heart’s wandering,

I hardly looked at length to plunge my hand

And thirsty lips deep in the distant spring

That step by step my feet so slowly neared.

For often I had seen the broken pledge

Of far mirages, swung upon the air,

Touched with the tender green of palm and sedge,

And where a thin stream, sliding from a ledge,

Promised me hope and paid me in despair.

So, come at last, in spite of all, to where

The falling waters all the senses cool,

Is it so strange that I should hardly dare

Believe I stand in truth beside the pool

That shone so small upon the desert’s edge?