How long the echoes love to play
Around the shore of silence, as a wave
Retreating circles down the sand!
One after one, with sweet delay,
The mellow sounds that cliff and island gave,
Have lingered in the crescent bay,
Until, by lightest breezes fanned,
They float far off beyond the dying day
And leave it still as death.
But hark,-
Another singing breath
Comes from the edge of dark;
A note as clear and slow
As falls from some enchanted bell,
Or spirit, passing from the world below,
That whispers back, Farewell.
So in the heart,
When, fading slowly down the past,
Fond memories depart,
And each that leaves it seems the last;
Long after all the rest are flown,
Returns a solitary tone,-
The after-echo of departed years,-
And touches all the soul to tears.
(Henry Van Dyke)
More Poetry from Henry Van Dyke:
Henry Van Dyke Poems based on Topics: World, Soul, Death & Dying, Silence, Past, Romantic Love- Vera (Henry Van Dyke Poems)
- The Builders (Henry Van Dyke Poems)
- The Toiling Of Felix (Henry Van Dyke Poems)
- Texas (Henry Van Dyke Poems)
- Who Follow The Flag (Henry Van Dyke Poems)
- Eight Echoes From The Poems Of August Angellier (Henry Van Dyke Poems)