The Portland daily press., 1870-10-07
Poetry.



In autumn's silent twilight, sad and sweet
love, no longer mine, stand; .,, feet
Listening, seem to hear dear phantom strapd
Fsss ~ me down me go sre and things that be,
1 hear the low soft ripfles OF tne s nns;e heat
That to ny thoughts respons'' r.
NV heart is very sad tonight ana cs and tees
but hushed in awe, t a. ne his being thrill,
a,h ,nmsic sweet and slumbrous, soltiy steals
Down the deep calm of some catneuaai a hane .vo
Then swells aud throbs ana breaks az ooes "a'e,
And slowly Gibbs, and all again is s,"'
And ia II only five years since, o love,
That we in this old place stood side by side,
Where in the twilight once again move?
Is this the same shore washed by the same tide?
NV heart recalls the past a little space,
The sweet and the irrevocable days;
knew not then how bitter life might prove.
I owed YOU then and shall love till die;
Your way OF lite is fair, 1t should be so.
And am glad though in dark years gone by
Hard thoughts OF you had but. now kno"
A fairer and softer path was meet
For treading OF your maiden feet;
Your lite must blossom meath a sumner sky.
The twilight, like s'eer, creeps on the day,
And like dark dreams the night creeps that sleep;
If you should come again in the old way
And look from pensve tender eyes ami deep
iron me, as you look'd in days of old
If my hand should again OF yours take hold,
How should feel, and what thing should say?
All, sweet days flown shall never come again,
That happy summer time shall not return
When We two stood beside the peaceful main,
And saw at eve the Using pillows yearn
With passion to the moon, and heard afar,
Across the waves. and meath the first warm star,
From ships at sea some sweet remembered stfaih.
l can recall the day when first we met, -
And how the burning summer sunnght leH
Across the sea; ncr, love, do forget
How, underneath that summer noontide spell.
We saw afar the white said vessels glide
As phantom ships upon waveless tide,
Whose shining calm no bretzes come to fret.
And shall blame you, sweet, because YOU choose,
A softer path of lite than mine could be?
keep our secret here, and no man knows
What pass'd five years ago 'twixt you and me-
Two loves begotten at the sell same time,
When that gold summer tide was in its prime;
One love lives yet, and one died with the rose
I work and live and take my part in things,
And 70 my life goes on from day to day; -
Eruitless the summers, seedess fall the springs,
To him who feels December one with May:
Inc night ID not more dreary than the sun,
Nor sadder is the twilight dim and dun,
IMAM dawn that, still returning, shines and sings.
Fed with wet scent'o hills through glowing shades,
70 the white waters edge the wind means down;
And fills the cave with shells and seaweed brown,
All. wild sea- beaten coast, more dear to me
Than fairest scenes of that fair land c0nld be
Where warm Italian suns steep happy glades!
Farewell, familiar scene, for ascend LFE
The jagged path that!led me to the shore;
Fare vel to cliff. cave, inlet-each friend;
My parting steps shall visit ye more;
Dear ye all when soft light steals through gloom,
Here had my joy its birth--here found its tomb,
Here love began, and here one love had end.
Phillip Bourke Aarston, in CornhU Magazine.