PAST AND FUTURE

THE NEW HATH COME AND NOW THE OLD RETIRES:

And so the past becomes a mountain-cell,

Where lone, apart, old hermit-memories dwell

In consecrated calm, forgotten yet

Of the keen heart that hastens to forget

Old longings in fulfilling new desires.

And now the Soul stands in a vague, intense

Expectancy and anguish of suspense,

On the dim chamber-threshold . . . lo! he sees

Like a strange, fated bride as yet unknown,

His timid future shrinking there alone,

Beneath her marriage-veil of mysteries.