Inconstant -- inconstant, when a single thought of thee Sends all my shivering blood, Back on my heart in thrills of ecstasy. Inconstant -- when to sleep and dream That thou art near me, is to learn, So much of heaven, and I weep To think that earth and morning must return. Inconstant, when to feel that thou has loved, Will love me to the last, Is joy enough to steal all joy from life, The future and the past! Inconstant? Ah, too true, Turned from the rightful shelter of thy breast My tired heart flutters through this changeful world, A bird without a nest. Inconstant to the crowd through which I pass, As to the sky above the fickle summer cloud, But not to thee, oh, not to thee my love. I may be false to all on earth beside, And every tender tie, Which seems to hold enthrall this weary life Of mine, may be a lie, But true as God's own truth My steadfast heart turns back evermore, To that sweet time of youth Whose golden tide beats such a barren shore. Inconstant! Not my own the hand That builds this wall between our lives; On its cold shadow grown to perfect shape, The flower of love survives. God knows, I'd give all other joys, The sweetest and the best, For one short hour to live Close, close to thy heart, its comfort and its rest. But life is not all dark. The sunlight gladdens many a hidden slope, The dove shall find its ark Of peaceful refuge, and of patient hope. But sacred to this loss One white, sweet chamber of my heart shall be. No foot shall ever cross The silent portal, sealed to love, and thee. And some time, when my lips Are to my first-born's, clinging close and long, Drawing with bee-like sips At its lily heart, will it be wrong, If, for an instant, wild with precious pain, I put aside the truth And dream it is thy child I'm fondling with such tender pride? And when another's head, Sleeps on thy heart, Should it ever seem to be my own instead, Oh, darling, hold it closer for the dream God will forgive the sin -- If sin it is, our lives are swept so dry, So cold, so passion-clean. Thank Him, Death comes at last, and so, -- good-bye. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MILES KEOGH'S HORSE by JOHN MILTON HAY THE SLAVE SINGING AT MIDNIGHT by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW HIGH FLIGHT by JOHN GILLESPIE MAGEE JR. THE SOFTNESS OF SYBARIS by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS THE FROGS: A 'EURIPIDEAN' CHORUS by ARISTOPHANES EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 2. MUTUAL LOVE by PHILIP AYRES HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 4 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH |