DIVIDED.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 279, 6 September 1878, Page 7

DIVIDED.

BY JEAN IKGELOW,

An empty sky, a world of heather, Purple of foxglove, yellow of broom ; We two among them wading together, Shaking out perfume, treading perfume. Crowds of bees are giddy with clover, Crowds of grasshoppers skip at our feet ; Crowds of larks at their matins hang over, Thanking the Lord for a life so sweet. We two walk till the purple dieth, And short dry grass underneath is brown ; But one little streak at a distance lieth, Green like a ribbon to prank the down. Over the grass we stepped into it, And God, He knoweth how blithe we were ! Never a voice to bid us eschew it ; Hey the green ribbon that showed so fair ! Hey the green ribbon ! we kneeled beside it, We parted the grasses dewy and sheen ; Drop over drop there flitted aud slided A tiny green beck that trickled between. Hand in hand, while the sun peeped over, We lapped the grass on that youngling spring ; Swept back its rushes, smoothed its clover, And said : " Let us follow it westering." Sing on ! we sing in the glorious weather Till one steps over the tiny strand, So narrow, in sooth, that still together, On either brink we go hand in hand. The beck grows wider, the hands must sever, On either margin, our songs all done ; We must move apart while she singeth ever, Taking ihe course of the stooping sun. He prays — •' Come over" — I may not follow ; I cry " Return" — but he cannot come ; We speak, we laugh, but with voices hollow ; Our hands are hanging, our hearts are numb. A little pain when the beck grows wider, " Cross to me now" — for her wavelets swell ; " I may not cross" — and the voice beside her Faintly reacheth, though heeded well. No backward path ; ah ! no returning — No second crossing that ripple's flow ; " Come to me now, for the west is burning ; Come ere it darkens ; " — "Ah, no ! ah no I " Then cries of pain and arni3 outstretching — The beck grows wider, and swift and deep ; Passionate words as of one beseeching — The loud beck drowns them ; we walk and weep. A heavier swell, a swifter sliding ; The river hasteth, her banks recede ; Wing-like tails on her bosom gliding Bear down the lily and drown the reed. While, Omy heart ! as white sails shiver, And crowds are passing, and banks stretch wide, How hard to follow, with lips that quiver, That moving speck on the far-off side. Farther, farther — I see it — I know it — My eyes brim over, it melts away ; Only my heart to my heart will show it As I walk desolate day by day. And yet I know, past all doubting, truly — A knowledge greater than grief can dim ; I know, as he loved, he will love me duly — Yea, better — c'en better than 1 love him. And as I walk by the vast calm river, The awful river so dread to see, I say : " Thy breadth and thy depth forever Are bridged by his thoughts that cross to me."