1. ۱Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead!
2. ۲ Sit and watch by her side an hour.
3. ۳That is her book-shelf, this her bed;
4. ۴ She plucked that piece of geranium-flower,
5. ۵Beginning to die too, in the glass;
6. ۶ Little has yet been changed, I think:
7. ۷The shutters are shut, no light may pass
8. ۸ Save two long rays thro' the hinge's chink.
9. ۹
10. ۱۰Sixteen years old when she died!
11. ۱۱ Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name;
12. ۱۲It was not her time to love; beside,
13. ۱۳ Her life had many a hope and aim,
14. ۱۴Duties enough and little cares,
15. ۱۵ And now was quiet, now astir,
16. ۱۶Till God's hand beckoned unawares,--
17. ۱۷ And the sweet white brow is all of her.
18. ۱۸
19. ۱۹Is it too late then, Evelyn Hope?
20. ۲۰ What, your soul was pure and true,
21. ۲۱The good stars met in your horoscope,
22. ۲۲ Made you of spirit, fire and dew--
23. ۲۳And just because I was thrice as old
24. ۲۴ And our paths in the world diverged so wide,
25. ۲۵Each was naught to each, must I be told?
26. ۲۶ We were fellow mortals, naught beside?
27. ۲۷
28. ۲۸No, indeed! for God above
29. ۲۹ Is great to grant, as mighty to make,
30. ۳۰And creates the love to reward the love:
31. ۳۱ I claim you still, for my own love's sake!
32. ۳۲Delayed it may be for more lives yet,
33. ۳۳ Thro' worlds I shall traverse, not a few:
34. ۳۴Much is to learn, much, to forget
35. ۳۵ Ere the time be come for taking you.
36. ۳۶
37. ۳۷But the time will come, at last it will,
38. ۳۸ When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say)
39. ۳۹In the lower earth in the years long still,
40. ۴۰ That body and soul so pure and ...?
41. ۴۱Why your hair was amber, I shall divine,
42. ۴۲ And your mouth of your own geranium's red--
43. ۴۳And what would you do with me, in fine,
44. ۴۴ In the new life come in the old one's stead.
45. ۴۵
46. ۴۶I have lived (I shall say) so much since then,
47. ۴۷ Given up myself so many times,
48. ۴۸Gained me the gains of various men,
49. ۴۹ Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;
50. ۵۰Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,
51. ۵۱ Either I missed or itself missed me:
52. ۵۲And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope!
53. ۵۳ What is the issue? let us see!
54. ۵۴
55. ۵۵I loved you, Evelyn, all the while!
56. ۵۶ My heart seemed full as it could hold;
57. ۵۷There was place and to spare for the frank young smile,
58. ۵۸ And the red young mouth, and the hair's young gold.
59. ۵۹So hush,--I will give you this leaf to keep:
60. ۶۰ See, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand!
61. ۶۱There, that is our secret: go to sleep!
62. ۶۲ You will wake, and remember, and understand.