Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A PARTING, by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER Poet's Biography First Line: Without one bitter feeling let us part Last Line: Remember that I thank you from my heart! Alternate Author Name(s): Berwick, Mary Subject(s): Farewell; Gratitude; Life; Love; Parting | ||||||||
WITHOUT one bitter feeling let us part, -- And for the years in which your love has shed A radiance like a glory round my head, I thank you, yes, I thank you from my heart. I thank you for the cherished hope of years, A starry future, dim and yet divine, Winging its way from Heaven to be mine, Laden with joy, and ignorant of tears. I thank you, yes, I thank you even more That my heart learnt not without love to live, But gave and gave, and still had more to give, From an abundant and exhaustless store. I thank you, and no grief is in these tears; I thank you, not in bitterness but truth, For the fair vision that adorned my youth And glorified so many happy years. Yet how much more I thank you that you tore At length the veil your hand had woven away, Which hid my idol was a thing of clay, And false the altar I had knelt before. I thank you that you taught me the stern truth, (None other could have told and I believed,) That vain had been my life, and I deceived, And wasted all the purpose of my youth. I thank you that your hand dashed down the shrine, Wherein my idol worship I had paid; Else had I never known a soul was made To serve and Worship only the Divine. I thank you that the heart I cast away On such as you, though broken, bruised, and crushed, Now that its fiery throbbing is all hushed, Upon a worthier altar I can lay. I thank you for the lesson that such love Is a perverting of God's royal right, That it is made but for the Infinite, And all too great to live except above. I thank you for a terrible awaking, And if reproach seemed hidden in my pain, And sorrow seemed to cry on your disdain, Know that my blessing lay in your forsaking. Farewell forever now: in peace we part; And should an idle vision of my tears Arise before your soul in after years, Remember that I thank you from my heart! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THREE CHILDREN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN STUDY #2 FOR B.B.L. by JUNE JORDAN WATCHING THE NEEDLEBOATS AT SAN SABBA by JAMES JOYCE SESTINA: TRAVEL NOTES by WELDON KEES A DOUBTING HEART by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER |
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