TO AN AUTOGRAPH-HUNTER.

Seek not my name — it doth no virtue bear;

Seek, seek thine own primeval name to find —

The name God called when thy ideal fair

Arose in deeps of the eternal mind.

When that thou findest, thou art straight a lord

Of time and space — art heir of all things grown;

And not my name, poor, earthly label-word,

But I myself thenceforward am thine own.

Thou hearest not? Or hearest as a man

Who hears the muttering of a foolish spell?

My very shadow would feel strange and wan

In thy abode:— I say No, and Farewell.

Thou understandest? Then it is enough;

No shadow-deputy shall mock my friend;

We walk the same path, over smooth and rough,

To meet ere long at the unending end.