I WENT to-night by the wooden bridge That steps across the stream; And I leant a little over its ledge To take a half-hour's dream. For sweetly to their depths were stirr'd Our hearts two nights ago, When she and I stood still and heard The stream sing on below. But all was changed and cold to me, The charm had fled away; The light that lit up hill and tree Had lost its old display. And yet the moon was in the sky, The stream sang sweet and clear; Now, heart, canst thou not tell me why I held that night so dear? Was it that she beside me stood, Like some one from above, And sent through all my rougher mood The gentleness of love? Or that mine eyes partook the tone Of hers, and saw the earth Like one great book wide open thrown Beneath a better birth? To this my heart would not reply, Nor speak its thoughts to me; And still the stream and field and sky Grew strange and cold to see. Now what, I question'd still, can bring The old look back again, And place as in a fairy ring This spot, and still my pain. Then some sweet spirit in the air, Whose mission is to move Around young bosoms, heard my pray'r, And whisper'd " One you love." O sudden voice of sweet surprise, What truth is in thy tone, That two can find a paradise Where one-but gloom alone. Thine, then, was all the light and bliss That made that night so dear; Come! wake me with thy sweetest kiss, And let thy soul be here. Vain wish! yet strange that two sweet eyes And brow and neck of snow Could make the moon within the skies Pour down her softest glow; And stranger still one form held dear, Standing beside my own, Had pow'r to make the stream so clear, And sing with such a tone. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MOTHER TO SON by IRENE RUTHERFORD MCLEOD THE SPROUTING BOARD by AL-ISRA'ILI WHEN DEATH HAS LOST THE KEY by KENNETH SLADE ALLING THUS FAR by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THOUGHTS ON THE SHAPE OF THE HUMAN BODY by RUPERT BROOKE SUBSTITUTION by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |