The Remonstrance

I was at peace until you came

And set a careless mind aflame;

I lived in quiet; cold, content;

All longing in safe banishment,

Until your ghostly lips and eyes

Made wisdom unwise.

Naught was in me to tempt your feet

To seek a lodging. Quite forgot

Lay the sweet solitude we two

In childhood used to wander through;

Time's cold had closed my heart about,

And shut you out.

Well, and what then? . . . O vision grave,

Take all the little all I have!

Strip me of what in voiceless throught

Life's kept of life, unhoped, unsought! —

Reverie and dream that memory must

Hide deep in dust!

This only I say: Though cold and bare,

The haunted house you have chosen to share,

Still 'neath its walls the moonbeam goes

And trembles on the untended rose;

Still o'er its broken roof-tree rise

The starry arches of the skies;

And 'neath your lightest word shall be

The thunder of an ebbing sea.