< bplhigg106.txt.1; letter_with_poem_embedded >
Dear friend.
When you
wrote you
would come
in November,
it would
please me it
were November
then - but the
time has moved -
You went with
the coming
of the Birds -
they will go
with your
coming - but

<verso, first leaf (BPL Higg 106)>
to see you is
so much
sweeter than
Birds, I could
Excuse the
Spring.
With the bloom
of the flower
your friend
loved, I have
wished for her -
but God cannot
discontinue
himself.
Mr Bowles was
not willing to
die -
When you have

<second leaf (BPL Higg 106)>
lost a friend,
Master - you
remember you
could not
begin again -
because there
was no World -
I have thought
of you often
since the
Darkness - though
we cannot
assist Another's
Night -
I have hoped
you were
saved -
That those

<verso, second leaf (BPL Higg 106)>
have immortality
with whom
we talked
about it, makes
it no more
mighty - but
perhaps more
sudden -
How brittle are
the Piers
On which our
Faith doth
tread -
No Bridge
below doth
totter so -
Yet none hath
such a Crowd.

<second sheet (BPL Higg 106)>
It is as old
as God -
Indeed - 'twas
built by him -
He sent his
Son to test
the Plank -
And he
pronounced it
firm -
I hope you
have been well -
I hope your
rambles have
been sweet
and your
reveries spacious -

<verso, fisrt leaf, second sheet (BPL Higg 106)>
To have seen
Stratford on
Avon - and the
Dresden Madonna -
must be almost
Peace -
And perhaps
you have
spoken with
George Eliot.
Will you "tell
me about it"?
Will you come
in November -
and will
November come -
or is this
the Hope

<second leaf, second sheet (BPL Higg 106)>
that opens
and shuts,
like the
Eye of the
Wax Doll?
Your Scholar -