Theos-Talk Archives (March 2012 Message tt00032)

ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO.



Thou and I in spirit land,

  One thousand years ago,

Watched the waves beat on the strand,

  Ceaseless ebb and flow,

Vowed, to love and ever love,

  One thousand years ago.



Thou and I in greenwood shade,

  Nine hundred years ago,

Heard the wild dove in the glade

  Murmuring soft and low,

Vowed to love for evermore,

  Nine hundred years ago.



Thou and I in yonder star,

  Eight hundred years ago,

Saw strange forms of light afar

  In wildest beauty glow.

All things change, but love endures

  Now as long ago.



Thou and I in Norman halls,

  Seven hundred years ago,

Heard the warden on the walls

  Loud his trumpets blow,

"Ton amors sera tojors,"

  Seven hundred years ago.



Thou and I in Germany,

  Six hundred years ago.

Then I bound the red cross on,

  "True love, I must go,

But we part to meet again

  In the endless flow."



Thou and I in Syrian plains,

  Five hundred years ago,

Felt the wild fire in our veins

  To a fever glow.

All things die, but love lives on,

  Now as long ago.



Thou and I in shadow land,

  Four hundred years ago,

Saw strange flowers bloom on the strand,

  Heard strange breezes blow.

In the ideal, love is real,

  This alone I know.



Thou and I in Italy,

  Three hundred years ago,

Lived in faith and died for God,

  Felt the faggots glow,

Ever new and ever true,

  Three hundred years ago.



Thou and I on Southern seas,

  Two hundred years ago,

Felt the perfumed even-breeze,

  Spoke in Spanish by the trees,

Had no care or woe.

  Life went dreamily in song,

Two hundred years ago.



Thou and I 'mid Northern snow,

  One hundred years ago,

Led an iron silent life

  And were glad to flow

Onward into changing death,

  One hundred years ago.



Thou and I but yesterday

  Met in fashion's show.

Love, did you remember me,

  Love of long ago?

Yes: we kept the fond oath sworn

  One thousand years ago.



- Charles Leland, Canadian Theosophist, Feb 15, 1934

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