Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A YOUNG GIRL by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE

First Line: DO NOT FORGET, / WHEN YOU ARE OLD
Last Line: "ONCE AND FOR AYE ENSHRINED YOU AS HER LOVER."
Subject(s): AGING; DEATH; HONOR; LOVE AFFAIRS; YOUTH; DEAD, THE;
@2D@1O not forget,
When you are old,
Margaret,
And I am—cold,
That long ago I was your loyal lover.

Two, when we met,
Were you,—no more,
Margaret;
And I—twoscore;
Far in the past, those sunlit days are over,—

Those days God let
Shine pure and bright,
Margaret,
When man and mite
Merrily played amid the summer clover.

My sun has set
That yours might rise,
Margaret;
Now all men's eyes
Rejoice your radiant beauty to discover.

And yet, and yet
My soul says slowly:
"Margaret
Does not forget!
Her child-heart holy
Once and for aye enshrined you as her lover."



Home: PoetryExplorer.net