RE-VOYAGE

What of the days when we two dreamed together?

Days marvellously fair,

As lightsome as a skyward floating feather

Sailing on summer air —

Summer, summer, that came drifting through

Fate's hand to me, to you.

What of the days, my dear? I sometimes wonder

If you too wish this sky

Could be the blue we sailed so softly under,

In that sun-kissed July;

Sailed in the warm and yellow afternoon,

With hearts in touch and tune.

Have you no longing to re-live the dreaming,

Adrift in my canoe?

To watch my paddle blade all wet and gleaming

Cleaving the waters through?

To lie wind-blown and wave-caressed, until

Your restless pulse grows still?

Do you not long to listen to the purling

Of foam athwart the keel?

To hear the nearing rapids softly swirling

Among their stones, to feel

The boat's unsteady tremor as it braves

The wild and snarling waves?

What need of question, what of your replying?

Oh! well I know that you

Would toss the world away to be but lying

Again in my canoe,

In listless indolence entranced and lost,

Wave-rocked, and passion tossed.

Ah me! my paddle failed me in the steering

Across love's shoreless seas;

All reckless, I had ne'er a thought of fearing

Such dreary days as these,

When through the self-same rapids we dash by,

My lone canoe and I.