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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


BEFORE AND AFTER by OLIVER MADOX BROWN

First Line: AH! LONG AGO SINCE I OR THOU
Last Line: TOO DEAD TO DREAD THE ETERNITIES WHOSE HEAVEN ITS SHAME DESTROYED.
Subject(s): TIME;

AH! long ago since I or thou
Glanced past these moorlands brow to brow,
Our mixed hair streaming down the wind --
So fleet! so sweet!
I loved thy footsteps more than thou
Loved my whole soul or body through --
So sweet! so fleet! ere Fate outgrew the days wherein Life sinned!

And ah! the deep steep days of shame,
Whose dread hopes shrivelled ere they came,
Or vanished down Love's nameless void --
So dread! so dead!
Dread hope stripped dead from each soul's shame,
Soulless alike for praise or blame --
Too dead to dread the eternities whose heaven its shame destroyed.



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