I I STAND by the river where both of us stood, And there is but one shadow to darken the flood; And the path leading to it, where both used to pass, Has the step but of one, to take dew from the grass, -- One forlorn since that day. II The flowers of the margin are many to see; None stoops at my bidding to pluck them for me. The bird in the alder sings loudly and long, -- My low sound of weeping disturbs not his song, As thy vow did, that day. III I stand by the river, I think of the vow; Oh, calm as the place is, vow-breaker, be thou! I leave the flower growing, the bird unreproved; Would I trouble thee rather than them, my beloved, -- And my lover that day? IV Go, be sure of my love, by that treason forgiven; Of my prayers, by the blessings they win thee from Heaven; Of my grief -- (guess the length of the sword by the sheath's) By the silence of life, more pathetic than death's! Go, -- be clear of that day! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CRISIS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE PESSIMIST by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON STRANGER by HARRIET GRAY BLACKWELL THE FOUR ZOAS: NIGHTS THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH by WILLIAM BLAKE LINES SUGGESTED BY A LATE OCCURRENCE by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD A SPENDTHRIFT by EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON BULWER-LYTTON WESTWARD PAGEANT by LUCILLE BURTON PICTURES by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON TO A YOUNG LADY WHO ASKED ME TO WRITE SOMETHING ORIGINAL FOR HER ALBUM by THOMAS CAMPBELL |