To Marguerite, In Returning A Volume Of The Letters Of Ortis
By Matthew Arnold
Yes: in the sea of life enisld,
With echoing straits between us thrown,
Dotting the shoreless watery wild,
We mortal millions live alone.
The islands feel the enclasping flow,
And then their endless bounds they know.
But when the moon their hollows lights,
And they are swept by balms of spring,
And in their glens, on starry nights,
The nightingales divinely sing;
And lovely notes, from shore to shore,
Across the sounds and channels pour
Oh! then a longing like despair
Is to their farthest caverns sent;
For surely once, they feel, we were
Parts of a single continent!
Now round us spreads the watery plain
Oh might our marges meet again!
Who orderd, that their longings fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, coold?
Who renders vain their deep desire?
A God, a God their severance ruld!
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumbd, salt, estranging sea.