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Their shining arms, and loving, trusting, bind
Themselves for life, and with a louder song

And in a wider channel glide along;
As when in some great symphony we trace,
Through deep and underlying harmonies,
How all the notes of melody uprise,
Lifted by answering notes in distant place,
Fulfilling each in each the final grace,
But shielding, keeping each from each

The separate voices through the blended speech;
So when we see two human souls by fate
Held in life's restless current side by side,
And in their deepest nature so allied
That each, but for the other, life's estate
Must smaller find, a sense of joy, too great
Almost for speech, thrills earnest souls who heed.
Their fellowship and long to say "God-speed!"

Two comrades such as these I know,—young, fair;
So fair, that choice cannot find right to choose;
So fair, that wish can nothing miss or lose
In either face; so young, their eyes still wear
The looks with which young children trust and dare;
So young, the womanhood of each warm heart
As yet finds love enough in love of Art.

One, silent,—with a silence whose quick speech
By subtler eloquence than any word,
Reveals when deepest depths are touched and stirred,—