Then Memory leads us with a sad, sweet smile Among those grass grown mounds. On many a stone Are names of those we loved - A little while And we shall be with them among our own. We seem to hear their welcoming voices ring; A whisper comes - “O death where is thy sting?” Alone we came into this world - alone We venture forth. And recollections fond Are all that we may bear to the beyond To lay, some day, before a great white throne! Our life has been a path forlorn that winds Forever on through gnarled and twisted years Of forest gloom. A path that memory finds And helps us trace it backward through our tears. Upon a beechen trunk, deep in the bark Two carven hearts by single arrow cleft: How many years since youth, with ardent hand Inscribed them there. Two hearts and one bereft! In the long autumn afternoons we go By russet moors and watch the slanting rays Bathe all the landscape with a golden haze That melts its harsher outlines. Thus the flow Of years has smoothed away each grief and pain Of childhood and life’s later bitterness, While Memory, with a witching tenderness, Has glorified the things that still remain. In pensive revery our fancy turns Out to the west where the red sunset burns, Fain would we ponder when our sun may set And yield to the sad sweetness of regret, But Memory thrills with wild ecstasies Before that miracle of blazing skies. In awe we gaze as lengthening shadows loom And night peers forth. But Memory hovers near We clutch her fingers in the deepening gloom And trembling hang upon her words of cheer, Till with a hopeful glance she points afar Where, like a gem on velvet, gleams a star! We stand aghast beneath the vaulted dome Aglitter with creation’s rhapsodies The countless stars. And let our fancy roam Through space unfathomed, past the Pleiades Out to the deeps beyond. Until the veil That shuts us from the past seems strangely stirred And recollections vague - beyond the pale - Flit through our brain, half thoughts confused and blurred. A former life upon some sunnier sphere! Things long forgot and dimly sensed again Far off, for one rapt moment hover near. We strive to clutch them, but we strive in vain. Does Memory mock us, or in fear perchance Shield us from some grim Terror’s Gorgon glance That glares unseen, from out the dark! Farflung A wisp of cloud darts like a dragon’s tongue And laps Orion’s belt. At glowing dawn The constellations fade - the veil is drawn!