When no pulses respond to
The feelings we prove;
And we tremble to question
"If this can be love;"
At moments comparing
Thy heart with mine own,
I mourn not my bondage,
I sigh for thy throne.
For if thou forsake me,
Too well I divine
That no love could defend thee
From sorrow like mine.
And this, O ungrateful,
I most should deplore—
That the heart thou hadst broken
Could shield thee no more!
A LAMENT.
I stand where I last stood with thee!
Sorrow, O sorrow!
There is not a leaf on the trysting-tree;
There is not a joy on the earth to me;
Sorrow, O sorrow!
When shalt thou be once again what thou wert?
Oh, the sweet yesterdays fled from the heart!
Have they a morrow?—
Here we stood, ere we parted, so close side by side;
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!
LOST AND AVENGED.
O God, give me rest from a thought!
I cannot escape it nor brave;
Dread ghost of a joy that I sought
To harrow my soul from its grave!