To the hopes, and strifes, and sports, and joys, And innocent vanity of boys; I hear his whistle at the door, His careless step upon the floor, His song, his jest, his laughter yet,-- And I forget, and I forget. V. Somewhere in the graveyard that I know, Where the strawberries under the chestnuts grow, They have laid him; and his sisters set On his grave the flowers their tears have wet; And above his grave, while I write, the song Of the matin robin leaps sweet and strong From the leafy dark of the chestnut-tree; And many a murmuring honey-bee On the strawberry blossoms in the grass Stoops by his grave and will not pass; And in the little hollow beneath The slope of the silent field of death, The cow-bells tinkle soft and sweet, And the cattle go by with homeward feet, And the squirrel barks from the sheltering limb, At the harmless noises not meant for him; And Nature, unto her loving heart Has taken our darling's mortal part, Tenderly, that he may be, Like the song of the robin in the tree, The blossoms, the grass, the reeds by the shore, A part of Summer evermore. VI. I write, and the words with my tears are wet,-- But I forget, O, I forget! Teach me, Thou that sendest this pain, To know and feel my loss and gain! Let me not falter in belief On his death, for that is sorest grief: O, lift me above this wearing strife, Till I discern his deathless life, Shining beyond this misty shore, A part of Heaven evermore. Venice, Wednesday Morning, at Dawn, May 16, 1864. THANKSGIVING. I. Lord, for the erring thought Not into evil wrought: Lord, for the wicked will Betrayed and baffled still: For the heart from itself kept, Our thanksgiving accept. II. For ignorant hopes that were Broken to our blind prayer: For pain, death, sorrow, sent Unto our chastisement: For all loss of seeming good, Quicken our gratitude. A SPRINGTIME. One knows the spring is coming: There are birds; the fields are green; There is balm in the sunlight and moonlight, And dew in the twilights between. But over there is a silence, A rapture great and dumb, That day when the doubt is ended, And at last the spring is come. Behold the wonder, O silence! Strange as if wrought in a night,-- The waited and lingering glory, The world-old, fresh delight! O blossoms that hang like winter, Drifted upon the trees, O birds that sing in the blossoms, O blossom-haunting bees,-- O green, green leaves on the branches, O shadowy dark below, O cool of the aisles of orchards, Woods that the wild flowers know,-- O air of gold and perfume, Wind, breathing sweet and sun, O sky of perfect azure-- Day, Heaven and Earth in one!-- Let me draw near thy secret, And in thy deep heart see How fared, in doubt and dreaming, The spring that is come in me.