Hope

I said, "Who art thou, with the flower-crowned hair
And shining eyes?" She answered, "I am Hope,
Thy friend for life, with all thy foes to cope."
Sweet songs she sang me, of far lands and fair;
Her face made starlight in a starless air;
But once, as down a dark and flowerless slope
That heard the sea, we strove our way to grope,
A sudden terror came upon her there;

She fell, — the strength ebbed from her, and she died.
Above her, dead, in body and soul I bowed,
While with strange tongues the darkness was endowed;
And well I knew the thing they prophesied:
Then up the shore came the waves large and loud,
And my life answered, tide to bitter tide.