PREV / NEXT

When I Go Walking in the Woods

When I go walking in the woods,

I take one thought with me,

And, unaware,

I find it there

Beside me in the sea;

Yea! could I fly,

I doubt not I

Would find it in the air:

Companion of all solitudes,

It is the thought of her.

And, when I fall asleep at night,

But for one thing I pray:

The power that stole

Away her soul

To bring it back some day;

And all my dreams,

Till morning gleams,

That through the day console,

Smell sweet of her, with her are bright,

As with an aureole.

And, sometimes in the afternoon,

When all is strange and still,

When sunshine sleeps

In the sea's deeps,

And loiters on the hill,

I seem to hear

A footstep near,

A sound of one who creeps

Softly, to listen—then, too soon,

The sound of one who weeps.