Egeria's Silence

Her thought that, like a brook beside the way,

Sang to my steps through all the wandering year,

Has ceased from melody — O Love, allay

My sudden fear!

She cannot fail — the beauty of that brow

Could never flower above a desert heart —

Somewhere beneath, the well-spring even now

Lives, though apart.

Some day, when winter has renewed her fount

With cold, white-folded snows and quiet rain,

O Love, O Love, her stream again will mount

And sing again!