Fears & Scruples

I.

Here's my case.  Of old I used to love him,
This same unseen friend, before I knew;
Dream there was none like him, none above him, --
Wake to hope and trust my dream was true.
II.
Loved I not his letters full of beauty?
Not his actions famous far and wide?
Absent, he would know I vowed him duty,
Present, he would find me at his side.
III.
Pleasant fancy!  for I had but letters,
Only knew of actions by hearsay:
He himself was busied with my betters;
What of that?  My turn must come someday.
IV.
"Some day" proving - no day!  Here's the puzzle.
Passed and passed my turn is.  Why complain?
He's so busied!  If I could but muzzle
People's foolish mouths that give me pain!
V.
"Letters?" (hear them!) "You a judge of writing?
Ask the experts! - How they shake the head
O'er these characters, your friend's inditing --
Call them forgery from A to Z!
VI.
"Action?  Where's your certain proof" (they bother)
"He, of all you find so great and good,
He, he only, claims this, that, the other
Action -- claimed by men, a multitude?"
VII.
I can simply wish I might refute you,
Wish my friend would, -by a word, a wink,-
Bid me stop that foolish mouth, -you brute you!
he keeps absent, -why I can not think.
VIII.
Never mind!  Tho' foolishness may flout me,
One things sure enough:  't is neither frost,
No, nor fire, shall freeze or burn from out me
Thanks for truth -Tho' falsehood, gained- tho' lost.
IX.
All my days, I'll go the softlier, sadlier,
For that dream's sake!  How forget the thrill
Thro' and thro' me as I thought "The gladlier
Lives my friend because I love him still!"
X.
Ah, but there's a menace some one utters!
"What and if your friend at home plays tricks?
Peep at hide-and-seek behind the shutters?
Mean your eyes should pierce thro' solid bricks?
XI.
"What and if he, frowning, wake you dreamy?
Lay on you the blame that bricks - conceal?
Say 'At least I saw who did not see me,
Does see now, and presently shall feel'?"
XII.
"Why, that makes your friend a monster!" say you;
"Had his house no window?  At first nod,
Would you not have hailed him?" Hush, I pray you!
What if this friend happened to be -- God?