AN UNPUBLISHED POEM BY LONGFELLOW.

Otago Witness, Issue 1880, 2 December 1887, Page 29

AN UNPUBLISHED POEM BY LONGFELLOW.

Alone I walked the peopled city, Where eaiih seems happy with his own ; Oli ! friends. I ask not for your pity — I walk alone. No more for mo yon lake rejoices, Though moved by loving airs of June, Oh ! biids, your sweet and pipiDg voices Are out of tune. In vain /or me the elm tree arches Its plum' 8 in many a feathery spray, In vain the evening's starry marches And sunlit day. In vain your beaaty, summer flowers : Ye cannot greet these cordial eyes ; They gaze on other Jields than ours— On other skies. The gold is rifled from the coffer, The blade is stolen from the sheath ; Life lias but one- more boon to offer, And that is— death. Yet well I know the voice of duty, And, therefore, life and health must crave, Though she who gave the world its beauty Is in her grave. I live, O lost one, for the living Who drew their earlieit life trom thee, And wait, until, with glad thanksgiving, I shall be free. For life to me is as a station "Wherein apart a traveller stands— One absent long from home and nation In other lands ; And I, as he who stands and listens, Amid the twilight's chill and gloom, To hear, approaching in the distance, The train for home. For death shall bring another mating, Beyond the shadows of the tomb, On yonder shore a. bride is waiting Until I come. In yonder fields are children playing, And there— Oh ! vision of delight !— I see the child and mother straying In robes of white. Thou, then, the longing heart that breakest, Stealing the treasures one by one, I'll call thee blessed when thou make3t The parted— one. September 18, 1863.