RECONCILIATION
NADSON
Long lasted our dispute, intense to tears.
We were all gathered, and we were alone.
Distressing thoughts and anguish and dark doubts
For days had vexed and wrung us, sparing none.
In our own circle here no monarch’s power
Restrained free speech, and in those hours, too brief,
It poured forth freely and it sounded harsh,
And each of us, while speaking, felt relief.
Brothers whose aspirations were the same,
Life’s fellow-travellers on the self-same path,
Oh, strange with what mistrust and bitterness
We on each other gazed, like foes in wrath!
Were we not all by one same feeling warmed,
The sacred love of our own country dear,
And on our lives, in stifling darkness wrapped,
Had not the self-same sun of hope shone clear?
You listened to us sadly; and sometimes
When I glanced at you, as we fiercely strove,
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