Parting Words

Good-by, O love! once more I hold your hand:
Good-by, for now the wind blows loud and long;
The ship is ready, and the waves are strong
To bear me far away from this your strand:
I know the sea that I shall cross, the land
Whereto I journey, and the forms that throng
Its palaces and shrines; I know the song
That they alone can sing and understand.

But promise me, O love, before I go
That sometimes, when the sun and wind are low.
You, walking in the old familiar ways
Thronged with gray phantoms of the buried days.
Will, looking seaward, say, " I wonder now
How fares it with him in the distant place?"