Afternoon

<SPAN name="XII"></SPAN>XII<br/> <br/> <br/> It is the pleasant hour when lamps are lit;<br/> Calmness and consolation over all;<br/> The silences so deep that one could hear<br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">A feather fall.</span><br/> <br/> It is the hour when the belovèd comes,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like to the sweetly soft and low</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wandering mist upon the breeze,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sweetly slow.</span><br/> She speaks no word at first&mdash;and yet I hark,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hark to the soul of her, surprise</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Its gleam and dark,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">And then I kiss her eyes.</span><br/> <br/> It is the pleasant hour when lamps are lit,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 9em;">The vow</span><br/> To love each other through the live-long day<br/> From depths of heart made luminous by it.<br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Is with us now.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">And then we speak of simple things;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">The fruit we gathered in the close,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The flowers that disclose,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Between the verdant mosses thick,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Their almost wings;</span><br/> <br/> And thought does blossom forth once more<br/> At memory of a word so fair<br/> Hid in a just remembered drawer,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">In a letter of last year.</span><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />