Late Lyrics and Earlier: They Would Not Come

They Would Not Come

I travelled to where in her lifetime
   She'd knelt at morning prayer,
   To call her up as if there;
But she paid no heed to my suing,
As though her old haunt could win not
   A thought from her spirit, or care.
I went where my friend had lectioned
   The prophets in high declaim,
   That my soul's ear the same
Full tones should catch as aforetime;
But silenced by gear of the Present
   Was the voice that once there came!
Where the ocean had sprayed our banquet
   I stood, to recall it as then:
   The same eluding again!
No vision.  Shows contingent
Affrighted it further from me
   Even than from my home-den.
When I found them no responders,
   But fugitives prone to flee
   From where they had used to be,
It vouched I had been led hither
As by night wisps in bogland,
   And bruised the heart of me!

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