Anticipation.

Let us peer forward through the dusk of years         And force the silent future to reveal         Her store of garnered joys; we may not kneel     For ever, and entreat our bliss with tears.         Somewhere on this drear earth the sunshine lies,         Somewhere the air breathes Heaven-blown harmonies.     Some day when you and I have fully learned         Our waiting-lesson, wondering, hand in hand         We shall gaze out upon an unknown land,     Our thoughts and our desires forever turned         From our old griefs, as swallows, home warding,         Sweep ever southward with unwearied wing.     We shall fare forth, comrades for evermore.         Though the ill-omened bird Time loves to bear         Has brushed this cheek and left an impress there     I shall be fierce and dauntless as of yore,         Free as a bird o'er the wide world to rove,         And strong and fearless, O my Love, to love.     What have we now? The haunting, vague unrest         Of incompleted measures; and we dream         Vainly, of the Musician and His theme,     How the great Master in a day most blest         Shall strike some mighty chords in harmony,         And make an end, and set the music free!     We snatch from Fate our moments of delight,         Few as, in April hours, the wooing calls         Of orioles, or when the twilight falls     First o'er the forest ere the approach of night         The eyes of evening; - and Love's song is sung         But once, Dear Heart, but once, and we are young.     Over the seas together, you and I,         'Neath blue Italian skies, or on the hills         Of storied Greece, - where the warm sunlight fills     Spain's mellow vineyards, - wandering reverently         O'er the green plains of Palestine, - our days         A golden holiday in Old World ways.     Yet would we linger not by southern shores;         The bracing breath of Scandinavian snows         Would draw us from our dreams. The North wind blows     Upon thy cheek, my Norseman, and the roars         Of the wild Baltic sound within my ears         When to my dreams thy stalwart form appears.     This will the future bring. See! Thou hast given         From out the fulness of thy strength and will         This courage to me. Though the rugged hill     Looms high, and fronts our vision, yet our heaven         (I see it when I sleep) with portals wide         And shining towers, gleams on the farther side.