Farewell has long been said; I have forgone thee;
Thou dost beset the path to every shrine;
How shall I thrust thee apart
I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong,
But when sleep comes to close each difficult day,
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After A Parting
I never name thee even.
But how shall I learn virtues and yet shun thee?
For thou art so near heaven
That heavenward meditations pause upon thee.
My trembling thoughts discern
Thy goodness in the good for which I pine;
And, if I turn from but one sin, I turn
Unto a smile of thine.
Since all my growth tends to thee night and day-
To thee faith, hope, and art?
Swift are the currents setting all one way;
They draw my life, my life, out of my heart.
Renouncement
I shun the love that lurks in all delight-
The love of thee-and in the blue heaven's height.
And in the dearest passage of a song.
O just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng
This breast, the thought of thee waits, hidden yet bright;
But it must never, never some in sight;
I must stop short of thee the whole day long.
When night gives pause to the long watch I keep,
And all my bonds I need must loose apart,
Must doff my will as raiment laid away,-
With the first dream that comes with the first sleep
I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.
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