Classic Poem

What if some night as you walked alone,
Where waves crept up to a moonlit shore,
There fell at your feet a strange, white stone,
And the name of a friend was writ thereon —
The name, and nothing more?

And what if the friend were worlds away,
The name unspoken and half forgot —
The friend you loved in a distant day,
Whose hand, at home, in your fingers lay
When morn of the midnight whispered not?

And what if the stone, unearthly bright,
Were quivering as with prisoned flame;
And your heart leapt up with a new delight,
And walls of paradise rose in sight,
As you kissed the dear old name?

What if some night as you walked alone,
Where waves crept up to a moonlit shore,
There fell at your feet a strange, white stone,
And the name of a friend was writ thereon —
The name, and nothing more?

And what if the friend were worlds away,
The name unspoken and half forgot —
The friend you loved in a distant day,
Whose hand, at home, in your fingers lay
When morn of the midnight whispered not?

And what if the stone, unearthly bright,
Were quivering as with prisoned flame;
And your heart leapt up with a new delight,
And walls of paradise rose in sight,
As you kissed the dear old name?