Classic Poem

She thought of him for years before they met;
She loved him long before she saw his face;
His name was, like a precious jewel, set
With treasured things in memory's holy place;
His songs had breathed upon her heart, and cleft
The rock whence pure and silent waters stole;
They came inspiring higher life—they left
Enkindled on the altar of her soul,
A living spark of that electric fire
That scintillated from his glorious lyre.

In lonely watches of the solemn night,
When, save her trembling heart-strings, all was still,
His thoughts were ever round her, pure and bright,
As angels sent to guard her life from ill;
And she had felt their presence and their power,
As some sweet strain of music floating by,
As the rich fragrance of a dewy flower,
Or the pale starlight trembling from the sky;
Like spotless vestals at her spirit's shrine
They ever ministered in things divine.

Oft did she wonder how the form would seem
That did a soul so beautiful enfold;
Was it as lovely as a radiant dream,
Or cast in nature's sternest, coarsest mould?
Had he a glowing cheek, a forehead high,
A lip the model for the sculptor's art?
And did the speaking radiance of the eye
A nameless beauty to the whole impart?
She only knew his soul was full of fire,
And made sweet music like a wind-swept lyre.

She scarcely hoped that they would ever meet,
For fate had drawn between them many a bar;
But she could read his lays, so wild and sweet,
And love him as she loved some distant star.
He was to her as sunlight to a bird,
As sweetest night-dew to a thirsty flower;
A zephyr, breathing where bright leaves are stirred;
A rainbow, bending o'er a sparkling shower;
A something beautiful, but undefined;
A thought, a joy, a memory enshrined.

Years passed—how many changes did they bring!
And still those gifted spirits dwelt apart;
But she, like some wild bird, had learned to sing
The bright, warm dreams that trembled o'er her heart;
Her thoughts had followed his in many a flight,
By fancy's sunny bowers and sparkling streams;
Her soul, like his, had worshipped all things bright,
And she had dreamed the same bewitching dreams;
Till like two hues in heaven, when day is done,
Their spirits met and mingled into one.