THE LOST KEY

        Set out from sight of shore!

                Grow tired of every sea!

        All things are ever more

                Than most they seem to be.

What steps are those that pass outside my door?

        Fail out from shape and thought!

                Let sense and feeling fade!

        O sadness overwrought

                With joy till bliss is strayed!

What birds are those that my swift window shade?

        But be those steps no steps,

                And be those birds dreamed wings,

        Still one ache oversteps

                The life to which it clings,

Though to know what ache no step in me helps

And what this pang is no bird in me sings.