Classic Poem

I SAW you,
I held you,
And surely I heard you:
But you were as far as any man living could be.

Though sometimes
I have seen you,
And touched you and heard you,
As together we walked and your sleeve now and then brushed mine;

Yet were you then
Farther, farther
Than with body's absence —
But who walks with you now while your thoughts are here and brush mine?

The slow waters
Of three oceans,
And the change of seasons,
Between us are but as a new-leafy hawthorn hedge,

And I see you
And hold you: —
But are you yet living,
Or come you now nearer than any man living may be?