How his fond imagining 5
Fell to ashes cold and grey,
When the flawless player came
In serenity and light.
So it was with those I loved
In the years ere I loved thee. 10
Many a saying sounds like truth,
Until Truth itself is heard.
Many a beauty only lives
Until Beauty passes by,
And the mortal is forgot 15
In the shadow of the god.
LXXVII
Hour by hour I sit,
Watching the silent door.
Shadows go by on the wall,
And steps in the street.
Expectation and doubt 5
Flutter my timorous heart.
So many hurrying home—
And thou still away.
LXXVIII
Once in the shining street,
In the heart of a seaboard town,
As I waited, behold, there came
The woman I loved.
As when, in the early spring, 5
A daffodil blooms in the grass,
Golden and gracious and glad,
The solitude smiled.