Canto LXXXII

When I contemplate all alone,

      The life that had been thine below,

      And fix my thoughts on all the glow

To which thy crescent would have grown;

I see thee sitting crown'd with good,

      A central warmth diffusing bliss

      In glance and smile, and clasp and kiss,

On all the branches of thy blood;

Thy blood, my friend, and partly mine;

      For now the day was drawing on,

      When thou should'st link thy life with one

Of mine own house, and boys of thine

Had babbled 'Uncle' on my knee;

      But that remorseless iron hour

      Made cypress of her orange flower,

Despair of Hope, and earth of thee.

I seem to meet their least desire,

      To clap their cheeks, to call them mine.

      I see their unborn faces shine

Beside the never-lighted fire.

I see myself an honour'd guest,

      Thy partner in the flowery walk

      Of letters, genial table-talk,

Or deep dispute, and graceful jest:

While now thy prosperous labour fills

      The lips of men with honest praise,

      And sun by sun the happy days

Descend below the golden hills

With promise of a morn as fair;

      And all the train of bounteous hours

      Conduct by paths of growing powers,

To reverence and the silver hair;

Till slowly worn her earthly robe,

      Her lavish mission richly wrought,

      Leaving great legacies of thought,

Thy spirit should fail from off the globe;

What time mine own might also flee,

      As link'd with thine in love and fate,

      And, hovering o’er the dolorous strait

To the other shore, involved in thee,

Arrive at last the blessed goal,

      And he that died in Holy Land

      Would reach us out the shining hand,

And take us as a single soul.

What reed was that on which I leant?

      Ah, backward fancy, wherefore wake

      The old bitterness again, and break

The low beginnings of content.