Book of my youth, I send thee to a friend
Met, comprehended, loved, alas! too late,—
Too near the sad, inevitable end
Decreed by life's inexorable fate;
Yet though an ocean's billows roll between,
And two great continents our paths divide,
The unseen subtly triumphs o'er the seen,
We walk in spirit, ever side by side;
He on the stately Mississippi's shore,
I‘ mid the snow and roses of Tyrol,
But in my heart he dwells forevermore,—
Belovèd friend, and double of my soul.