Oh! then a longing like despair Is to their farthest caverns sent; For surely once, they feel, we were Parts of a single continent! Now round us spreads the watery plain-- Oh might our marges meet again! Who order'd, that their longing's fire Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd? Who renders vain their deep desire?-- God, a God their severance ruled! And bade betwixt their shores to be The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea. 6. ABSENCE In this fair stranger's eyes of grey Thine eyes, my love! I see. I shiver; for the passing day Had borne me far from thee. This is the curse of life! that not A nobler, calmer train Of wiser thoughts and feelings blot Our passions from our brain; But each day brings its petty dust Our soon-choked souls to fill, And we forget because we must And not because we will. I struggle towards the light; and ye, Once-long'd-for storms of love! If with the light ye cannot be, I bear that ye remove. I struggle towards the light--but oh, While yet the night is chill, Upon time's barren, stormy flow, Stay with me, Marguerite, still! 7. THE TERRACE AT BERNE (COMPOSED TEN YEARS AFTER THE PRECEDING) Ten years!--and to my waking eye Once more the roofs of Berne appear; The rocky banks, the terrace high, The stream!--and do I linger here? The clouds are on the Oberland, The Jungfrau snows look faint and far; But bright are those green fields at hand, And through those fields comes down the Aar, And from the blue twin-lakes it comes, Flows by the town, the churchyard fair; And 'neath the garden-walk it hums, The house!--and is my Marguerite there? Ah, shall I see thee, while a flush Of startled pleasure floods thy brow, Quick through the oleanders brush, And clap thy hands, and cry: _'Tis thou!_ Or hast thou long since wander'd back, Daughter of France! to France, thy home; And flitted down the flowery track Where feet like thine too lightly come? Doth riotous laughter now replace Thy smile; and rouge, with stony glare, Thy cheek's soft hue; and fluttering lace The kerchief that enwound thy hair? Or is it over? art thou dead?-- Dead!--and no warning shiver ran Across my heart, to say thy thread Of life was cut, and closed thy span! Could from earth's ways that figure slight Be lost, and I not feel 'twas so? Of that fresh voice the gay delight Fail from earth's air, and I not know?