But the words were never spoken;
And the distance wider grew,
Till the world of waves was lying
Between me, love, and you,
No bridge might ever cross it.
I watched you turn away,
And I went back to duty—
’Tis all a woman may.
But I never shall be nearer
The thrilling heights of bliss—
Unless the next world gives us
The love we lose in this—
Than when in that far June-time,
We seemed to stand apart,
And I thought your eyes grew tender,
And I knew what filled my heart.
UNSATISFIED
Oh, “dear dead days” that dearer grow,
I look behind, and thro’ my tears,
Across a wide, wide gulf of years,
I see you now and now I know.
When I was yours, you mine, alas!
I did not know your real worth,
And, longing for the future’s birth,
Found time so slow, so slow to pass.
The joys I hoped for never came,
While those I held slipped from my clasp,
As I stretched yearning hands to grasp
Shadows—’tis evermore the same!
We strain dim eyes up to the stars,
Nor heed the blossoms at our feet;
Like puny birds we beat and beat
Our lives out ’gainst Fate’s prison bars.