Beside me, nought but this;—and passed;

I passed; and know not to this day

If gold or jet her girlish hair,

If black, or brown, or lucid-grey

Her eye’s young glance: the fickle chance

That joined us, yet may join again;

But I no face again could greet

As hers, whose life was in me then.

As unsuspecting mere a maid

As, fresh in maidhood’s bloomiest bloom,