Once, at night, in the manor wood
 My Love and I long silent stood,
 Amazed that any heavens could
Decree to part us, bitterly repining.
 My Love, in aimless love and grief,
 Reached forth and drew aside a leaf
 That just above us played the thief
And stole our starlight that for us was shining.

 A star that had remarked her pain
 Shone straightway down that leafy lane,
 And wrought his image, mirror-plain,
Within a tear that on her lash hung gleaming.
 "Thus Time," I cried, "is but a tear
 Some one hath wept 'twixt hope and fear,
 Yet in his little lucent sphere
Our star of stars, Eternity, is beaming."