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ABSENCE by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: WHEN MY LOVE WAS AWAY
Last Line: IF THOU WERT LONGER AWAY.'
Subject(s): ABSENCE; LOVE; SEPARATION; ISOLATION;

WHEN my love was away,
Full three days were not sped,
I caught my fancy astray
Thinking if she were dead,

And I alone, alone:
It seem'd in my misery
In all the world was none
Ever so lone as I.

I wept; but it did not shame
Nor comfort my heart: away
I rode as I might, and came
To my love at close of day.

The sight of her still'd my fears,
My fairest-hearted love:
And yet in her eyes were tears:15
Which when I question'd of,

'O now thou art come,' she cried,
''Tis fled: but I thought to-day
I never could here abide,
If thou wert longer away.'



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