Is it too late, then, Evelyn Hope? 
   What! your soul was pure and true;
The good stars met in your horoscope,
   Made you of spirit, fire, and dew;
And just because I was thrice as old,
   And our paths in the world diverged so wide,
Each was naught to each, must I be told? 
   We were fellow-mortals,—­naught beside?

No, indeed! for God above
   Is great to grant as mighty to make,
And creates the love to reward the love;
   I claim you still, for my own love’s sake! 
Delayed, it may be, for more lives yet,
   Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few;
Much is to learn and much to forget
   Ere the time be come for taking you.

But the time will come—­at last it will—­
   When, Evelyn Hope, what meant, I shall say,
In the lower earth,—­in the years long still,—­
  That body and soul so pure and gay? 
Why your hair was amber I shall divine,
  And your mouth of your own geranium’s red,—­
And what you would do with me, in fine,
  In the new life come in the old one’s stead.

I have lived, I shall say, so much since then,
  Given up myself so many times,
Gained me the gains of various men. 
  Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;
Yet one thing—­one—­in my soul’s full scope,
  Either I missed or itself missed me,—­
And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope! 
  What is the issue? let us see!

I loved you, Evelyn, all the while;
  My heart seemed full as it could hold,—­
There was place and to spare for the frank young smile,
  And the red young mouth, and the hair’s young gold. 
So, hush!  I will give you this leaf to keep;
  See, I shut it inside the sweet, cold hand. 
There, that is our secret! go to sleep;
  You will wake, and remember, and understand.

ROBERT BROWNING.

ANNABEL LEE.

It was many and many a year ago,
  In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden lived, whom you may know
  By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
  Than to love, and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
  In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love,
  I and my Annabel Lee,—­
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
  Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that long ago,
  In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
  My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came,
  And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre,
  In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not so happy in heaven,
  Went envying her and me. 
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know)
  In this kingdom by the sea,
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
  Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.