We went a day’s excursion to the stream,
Basked by the bank, and bent to the ripple-gleam,
       &nbsp       &nbsp And I did not know
       &nbsp       &nbsp That life would show,
However it might flower, no finer glow.

I walked in the Sunday sunshine by the road
That wound towards the wicket of your abode,
       &nbsp       &nbsp And I did not think
       &nbsp       &nbsp That life would shrink
To nothing ere it shed a rosier pink.

Unlooked for I arrived on a rainy night,
And you hailed me at the door by the swaying light,
       &nbsp       &nbsp And I full forgot
       &nbsp       &nbsp That life might not
Again be touching that ecstatic height.

And that calm eve when you walked up the stair,
After a gaiety prolonged and rare,
       &nbsp       &nbsp No thought soever
       &nbsp       &nbsp That you might never
Walk down again, struck me as I stood there.