Sunlit Hours

<SPAN name="XXVIII"></SPAN>XXVIII<br/> <br/> <br/> Was there ever in us one caress,<br/> One joyous laugh, or tenderness<br/> We dared not strew before us on our way?<br/> Or ever prayer in silence heard,<br/> Whose dim, unuttered word<br/> We sought to stay?<br/> A single yearning of compassion.<br/> A quiet vow or one of passion<br/> We sought to slay?<br/> So, loving thus,<br/> Our hearts, like two apostles, went<br/> Seeking the lowly ones with timid brow,<br/> Who, feeling then so bound to us,<br/> Proclaimed on high love's ravishment,<br/> As a flowery people loves the bough<br/> That holds them bathed in the sun's warm ray;<br/> Our souls, grown greater still by this re-birth,<br/> Began to glory those who feel love's sway,<br/> Increasing love by love's own might,<br/> To cherish thus divinely the whole earth<br/> That seemed reflected in our own souls' light.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />