Sunshine through Fog

The Here is a blur, and there is no There;
     The sea is lost and the land is lost;
A cool, gray mist is everywhere
     And a murmur alone betrays the coast.

If a bird flit past in the formless void
     It seems a spirit from the dim Abyss,
A thing flung out from a World destroyed
     With a sudden ?? of doom[?] to this!

Somewhere under this sombre shroud
     The hidden home of Lyra’s lost!
Is the land dissolved to a ghostly cloud
     And its guest returned to the starry host?

The green Isle, fair as an isle may be
     Hath it floated away in this grasp of mist;
Into Delos – the Aegean sea—
     Ever a-drift till by sunshine kissed?

Ah me! I know where that Island lies!
     By a chart on the tablet of Memory drawn,—
And. Compass true to the steadfast skies
     Of a love unchanged since that true love’s dawn!

The world shut out is a World restored
     The quenched sun kindles a fairer sun;
And the heart unlocks its priceless hoard
     Of sweets from the brooding darkness won!

This misty mantle on Land and sea,
     Though clouding the brows of grave and gay,
Is a temple-veil over thee and me,
     Shutting the work-day world away.

Back on itself is the spirit flung
     To bask in the smile of an unseen guest,
In whose love the Poet-heart keeps young,
     And the Poet-song flows liveliest!

Thus though the vapor the subbeams melt
     From a sun no vapor of Earth can dim – 
The absent form is a Presence felt – 
     While her silent thought broods over him.