Henry Kendall

Early Poems (1859-70). At Long Bay

Five years ago! you cannot choose
 But know the face of change,
Though July sleeps and Spring renews
 The gloss in gorge and range.

Five years ago! I hardly know
 How they have slipped away,
Since here we watched at ebb and flow
 The waters of the Bay;

And saw, with eyes of little faith,
 From cumbered summits fade
The rainbow and the rainbow wraith,
 That shadow of a shade.

For Love and Youth were vext with doubt,
 Like ships on driving seas,
And in those days the heart gave out
 Unthankful similes.

But let it be!  I've often said
 His lot was hardly cast
Who never turned a happy head
 To an unhappy Past—

Who never turned a face of light
 To cares beyond recall:
He only fares in sorer plight
 Who hath no Past at all!

So take my faith, and let it stand
 Between us for a sign
That five bright years have known the land
 Since yonder tumbled line

Of seacliff took our troubled talk—
 The words at random thrown,
And Echo lived about this walk
 Of gap and slimy stone.

Here first we learned the Love which leaves
 No lack or loss behind,
The dark, sweet Love which woos the eves
 And haunts the morning wind.

And roves with runnels in the dell,
 And houses by the wave
What time the storm hath struck the fell
 And Terror fills the cave—

A Love, you know, that lives and lies
 For moments past control,
And mellows through the Poet's eyes
 And sweetens in his soul.

Here first we faced a briny breeze,
 What time the middle gale
Went shrilling over whitened seas
 With flying towers of sail.

And here we heard the plovers call
 As shattered pauses came,
When Heaven showed a fiery wall
 With sheets of wasted flame.

Here grebe and gull and heavy glede
 Passed eastward far away,
The while the wind, with slackened speed,
 Drooped with the dying Day.

And here our friendship, like a tree,
 Perennial grew and grew,
Till you were glad to live for me,
 And I to live for you.