Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/398

370 Near is the looked-for land—

One wild leap on the strand

And the dear souls I loved of old

I shall again behold,

And arms that held me once shall hold again.

In blinding ways of men

Long did I mourning doubt,

Saying: "Into the universe have they gone out

And shall be lost

In the wide waves of unseen, infinite force;

For nature heeds not all the bitter cost,

But rushes on its course

Unto the far, determined goal,

Without self-conscious knowledge, or remorse."

But now the time is come, the test draws near,

And sudden my soul is innocent of fear.

O ye beloved! I come! I cry

With the old passion ye shall not deny!

I know you, as I knew

When life was in its dew;

Ah, naught of me has suffered inward change,

Nor can be change essential even in you,

However far the freer spirit's range.

Soul shall find soul; there is no distance

That bars love's brave insistence,

And nothing truly dies

In all the infinite realm of woe and weal;

Throughout creation's bound thrill answers thrill

And love to love replies.

THE DOUBTER'S SOLILOQUY

lie, even as the black, I learned to hate;

Being taught clear truth by honest parentage,