Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CORA LEE, by WALTER E. ISENHOUR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CORA LEE, by                    
First Line: As backward turn my thoughts today
Last Line: "ah, this is cora lee!"
Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation


As backward turn my thoughts today
Across the fleeting years,
While turning memory's pages old
A pretty maid appears.

I see her lovely, smiling face,
Her waving, floating hair,
And look into her sparkling eyes
When she was young and fair.

I listen to her mellow voice
While sitting by her side,
And wonder if my love for her
I then should try to hide.

We journeyed to and from the church
To serve and worship God;
We prayed that we might go the way
Our blessed Master trod.

As swiftly sped the days along
My heart was filled with glee
As I confided in her love—
My own dear Cora Lee.

But soon we came, with saddened hearts,
To parting of the ways,
When she and I should separate
For all our future days.

It seemed that fate would have it so;—
The reason God doth hide;—
Another won her heart and hand,
And she became his bride.

Ere long the white-winged angel came
And kissed her rosy face,
And in the old churchyard her dust
Then found a resting place.

I find within a time-worn book
A card she wrote to me,
When she and I were lovers real—
This maiden, Cora Lee.

From out the cycle of the years—
The years so swiftly flown—
This writing of her own dear hand
Is all of her I own.

I'm thinking we shall meet again
Beyond the mystic sea,
And say, when I shall see her face,
"Ah, this is Cora Lee!"





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