Chapter XIV

And long, long ages hence, when the Land that we love so well
Has clasped us all (as a mother clasps her babe) to her
motherly bosom,
Those who shall walk on the dust of us, with pride in their
Land shall tell,
Holding the fruit in their grateful hands, of the birth
of to-day, the blossom.

IN MY HEART.

I.

In my heart are many chambers through which I wander free;
Some are furnished, some are empty, some are sombre, some are light;
Some are open to all comers, and of some I keep the key,
And I enter in the stillness of the night.

II.

But there’s one I never enter,--it is closed to even me!
Only once its door was opened, and it shut for evermore;
And though sounds of many voices gather round it, like the sea,
It is silent, ever silent, as the shore.

III.

In that chamber, long ago, my love’s casket was concealed,
And the jewel that it sheltered I knew only one could win;
And my soul foreboded sorrow, should that jewel be revealed,
And I almost hoped that none might enter in.

IV.

Yet day and night I lingered by that fatal chamber door,
Till--she came at last, my darling one, of all the earth my own;
And she entered--and she vanished with my jewel, which she wore;
And the door was closed--and I was left alone.

V.

She gave me back no jewel, but the spirit of her eyes
Shone with tenderness a moment, as she closed that chamber door,
And the memory of that moment is all I have to prize,--
But _that, at least_, is mine for evermore.