If I had known, oh, loyal heart,
When, hand to hand, we said farewell,
How for all time our paths would part,
What shadow o'er our friendship fell,
I should have clasped your hands so close
In the warm pressure of my own,
That memory still would keep its grasp---
If I had known.

If I had known, when far and wide
We loitered through the summer land,
What Presence wandered by our side,
And o'er you stretched its awful hand,
I should have, hushed my careless speech.
To listen, dear, to every tone
That from your lips fell low and sweet---
If I had known.

If I had known, when your kind eyes
let mine in parting, true and sad---
Eyes gravely tender, gently wise,
And earnest, rather, more than glad---
How soon the lids would lie above,
As cold and white as sculptured stone,
I should have treasured every glance---
If I had known.

If I had known how, from the strife
Of fears, hopes, passions, here below,
Unto a purer, higher life
That you were called, oh ! friend, to go,
I should have stayed my foolish tears,
And hushed each idle sigh and moan,
To bid you last a long godspeed---
If I had known.

If I had known to what strange place,
What mystic, distant, silent shore,
You calmly turned your steadfast face,
What time your footsteps left my door,
I should have forged a golden link
To bind the hearts so constant grown,
And keep it constant ever there---
If I had known.

If I had known that until Death
Shall with his finger touch my brow,
And still the quickening of the breath
That stirs with life's full meaning now,
So long my feet must tread the way
Of our accustomed paths alone,
I should have prized your presence more---
If I had known.

If I had known how soon for you
Drew near the ending of the fight,
And on your vision, fair and new,
Eternal peace dawned into sight,
I should have begged, as love's last gift,
That you, before God's great white throne,
Would pray for your poor friend on earth---
If I had known.
Author Unknown
Gems of Literature, Art and Music, 1887