"
Twin soul, I will! I will!
[Illustration]
HONORS.--PART II.
(_The Answer._)
As one who, journeying, checks the rein in haste
Because a chasm doth yawn across his way
Too wide for leaping, and too steeply faced
For climber to essay--
As such an one, being brought to sudden stand,
Doubts all his foregone path if 'twere the true,
And turns to this and then to the other hand
As knowing not what to do,--
So I, being checked, am with my path at strife
Which led to such a chasm, and there doth end.
False path! it cost me priceless years of life,
My well-beloved friend.
There fell a flute when Ganymede went up--
The flute that he was wont to play upon:
It dropped beside the jonquil's milk-white cup,
And freckled cowslips wan--
Dropped from his heedless hand when, dazed and mute,
He sailed upon the eagle's quivering wing,
Aspiring, panting--aye, it dropped--the flute
Erewhile a cherished thing.
Among the delicate grasses and the bells
Of crocuses that spotted a rill side,
I picked up such a flute, and its clear swells
To my young lips replied.
I played thereon, and its response was sweet;
But lo, they took from me that solacing reed.
"O shame!" they said; "such music is not meet;
Go up like Ganymede.
"Go up, despise these humble grassy things,
Sit on the golden edge of yonder cloud.
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