Once, At Night, In The Manor Wood My Love And I Long Silent Stood, Amazed That Any Heavens Could Decree To Part Us, Bitterly Repining. My Love, In Aimless Love And Grief, Reached Forth And Drew Aside A Leaf That Just Above Us Played The Thief And Stole Our Starlight That For Us Was Shining. A Star That Had Remarked Her Pain Shone Straightway Down That Leafy Lane, And Wrought His Image, Mirror-Plain, Within A Tear That On Her Lash Hung Gleaming. "Thus Time," I Cried, "Is But A Tear Some One Hath Wept 'Twixt Hope And Fear, Yet In His Little Lucent Sphere Our Star Of Stars, Eternity, Is Beaming." Macon, Georgia, 1867. Revised In 1879.