Two lives that once part, are as ships that divide
When, moment on moment, there rushes between
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Two lives that once part, are as ships that divide
When, moment on moment, there rushes between
The one and the other, a sea;--
Ah, never can fall from the days that have been
A gleam on the years that shall be!

And soon, too soon, we part with pain,
To sail o'er silent seas again.

And soon, too soon, we part with pain,
To sail o'er silent seas again.

In life there are meetings which seem
Like a fate.

In life there are meetings which seem
Like a fate.

When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown and a distant read more

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness:
So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

The joy of meeting not unmixed with pain.

The joy of meeting not unmixed with pain.

Like a plank of driftwood
Tossed on the watery main,
Another plank encountered,
Meets, read more

Like a plank of driftwood
Tossed on the watery main,
Another plank encountered,
Meets, touches, parts again;
So tossed, and drifting ever,
On life's unresting sea,
Men meet, and greet, and sever,
Parting eternally.

As two floating planks meet and part on the sea,
O friend! so I met and then drifted from read more

As two floating planks meet and part on the sea,
O friend! so I met and then drifted from thee.

Like driftwood spares which meet and pass
Upon the boundless ocean-plain,
So on the sea of life, read more

Like driftwood spares which meet and pass
Upon the boundless ocean-plain,
So on the sea of life, alas!
Man nears man, meets, and leaves again.