She was the morning light to me
but of another system
and the more we met
the more rapid our divergence
so a star of the first magnitude
pales in the heavens
because progress in its own system
puts a greater distance between
The cold numbs my fingers
and the robins fly in flocks
to think it could be otherwise
disturbs the settled spheres.
—formed with interpretation from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Oct. 27, 1851
