In Divers Tones

by Charles G.D. Roberts

Edited by Tracy Ware

 

A SERENADE

 
Love hath given the day for longing,
   And for joy the night.
Dearest, to thy distant chamber
   Wings my soul its flight.

Though unfathomed seas divide us,
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   And the lingering year,
’Tis the hour when absence parts not,—
   Memory hath no tear.

O’er the charmed and silent river
   Drifts my lonely boat;
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From the haunted shores and islands
   Tender murmurs float,

Tender breaths of glade and forest,
   Breezes of perfume;—
Surely, surely thou canst hear me
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   In thy quiet room!

Unto shore, and sky, and silence,
   Low I pour my song.
All the spell, the summer sweetness,—
   These to thee belong.
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Thou art love, the trance and rapture
   Of the midnight clear!
Sweet, tho’ world on world withold thee,
   I can clasp thee here.