Some heart’s remembrance and regret
Fill every street with life profound:
This corner where of old we met
To me has since been hallowed ground;
I never pass in sun or rain
Now, but I meet you here again.
We cannot go from where we dwell
And leave behind no lingering trace;
Where in the past our shadow fell
A shadow of us haunts the place;
Returning now, ourselves may there
Disturb some ghost of what we were.
The stones are thrilled by many a tread
That leaves no footprint where it strays;
Shades of the living and the dead
In silence throng the noisy ways:
Here where I meet in shower or shine
Your ghost, you haply meet with mine.
The air has sounds we cannot hear,
Is dim with shapes that none can see;
Though dear the living voice, and dear
The sight of living faces be,
With kindlier yearnings yet we greet
The friends we see not when we meet.