PERSONALITY

O differing human heart,

Why is it that I tremble when thine eyes,

Thy human eyes and beautiful human speech,

Draw me, and stir within my soul

That subtle ineradicable longing

For tender comradeship?

It is because I cannot all at once,

Through the half-lights and phantom-haunted mists

That separate and enshroud us life from life,

Discern the nearness or the strangeness of thy paths

Nor plumb thy depths.

I am like one that comes alone at night

To a strange stream, and by an unknown ford

Stands, and for a moment yearns and shrinks,

Being ignorant of the water, though so quiet it is,

So softly murmurous,

So silvered by the familiar moon.