James Garber by Edgar Lee Masters — Read

Do you remember, passer-by, the path / I wore across the lot where now stands the opera house, / Hasting with swift feet to work through many years?

Take its meaning to heart:

You too may walk, after the hills at Miller's Ford / Seem no longer far away;

Long after you see them near at hand, / Beyond four miles of meadow;

And after woman's love is silent / Saying no more: "l will save you."

And after the faces of friends and kindred / Become as faded photographs, pitifully silent, / Sad for the look which means: "We cannot help you."

And after you no longer reproach mankind / With being in league against your soul's uplifted hands --

Themselves compelled at midnight and at noon / To watch with steadfast eye their destinies;

After you have these understandings, think of me / And of my path, who walked therein and knew / That neither man nor woman, neither toil, / Nor duty, gold nor power / Can ease the longing of the soul, / The loneliness of the soul!