| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Memory | | By Charles Lotin Hildreth (1858?–1896) |
| | | WHAT we miscall our life is Memory: | |
| We walk upon a narrow path between | |
| Two gulfs—what is to be, and what has been, | |
| Led by a guide whose name is Destiny; | |
| Beyond is sightless gloom and mystery, | 5 |
| From whose unfathomable depths we glean | |
| Chaotic hopes and terrors, dimly seen | |
| Reflections of a past reality. | |
| Behind, pursuing through the twilight haze, | |
| The phantom people of the past appear; | 10 |
| Hope, happiness and sorrow, fruitless strife, | |
| And all the loved and lost of other days; | |
| They crowd upon us closer year by year, | |
| Till we as phantoms haunt some other life. | | | | |
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