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Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

Counsel

By Mary Evelyn Moore Davis (1844–1909)

IF thou shouldst bid thy friend farewell,

—But for one night though that farewell should be—

Press thou his hand in thine; how canst thou tell

How far from thee

Fate or Caprice may lead his feet

Ere that to-morrow come? Men have been known

Lightly to turn the corner of a street,

And days have grown

To months, and months to lagging years,

Before they looked in loving eyes again.

Parting, at best, is underlaid with tears,

—With tears and pain.

Therefore, lest sudden death should come between,

Or time, or distance, clasp with pressure true

The palm of him who goeth forth. Unseen

Fate goeth too!

Yea, find thou alway time to say

Some earnest word betwixt the idle talk,

Lest with thee henceforth, night and day,

Regret should walk.

The Galaxy. 1872.