How Can That Love So Deep, So Lone

How can that love so deep, so lone,
So faithful unto death,
Thus fitfully in laughing tone,
In airy word, find breath?

Nay! ask how on the dark wave’s breast,
The lily’s cup may gleam,
Though many a mournful secret rest
Low in the unfathom’d stream.

That stream is like my hidden love,
In its deep current’s power;
And like the play of words above,
That lily’s trembling flower.