Wanderers

SWEET is the highroad when the skylarks call,

When we and Love go rambling through the land.

But shall we still walk gayly, hand in hand,

At the road’s turning and the twilight’s fall?

Then darkness shall divide us like a wall,

And uncouth evil nightbirds flap their wings;

The solitude of all created things

Will creep upon us shuddering like a pall.

This is the knowledge I have wrung from pain:

We, yea, all lovers, are not one, but twain,

Each by strange wisps to strange abysses drawn;

But through the black immensity of night

Love’s little lantern, like a glowworm’s, bright,

May lead our steps to some stupendous dawn.