(Young Lover's Reverie) I WENT and stood outside myself, Spelled the dark sky And ship-lights nigh, And grumbling winds that passed thereby. Then next inside myself I looked, And there, above All, shone my Love, That nothing matched the image of. Beyond myself again I ranged; And saw the free Life by the sea, And folk indifferent to me. O 'twas a charm to draw within Thereafter, where But she was; care For one thing only, her hid there! But so it chanced, without myself I had to look, And then I took More heed of what I had long forsook: The boats, the sands, the esplanade, The laughing crowd; Light-hearted, loud Greetings from some not ill-endowed; The evening sunlit cliffs, the talk, Hailings and halts, The keen sea-salts, The band, the Morgenblatter Waltz. Still, when at night I drew inside Forward she came, Sad, but the same As when I first had known her name. Then rose a time when, as by force, Outwardly wooed By contacts crude, Her image in abeyance stood.... At last I said; This outside life Shall not endure; I'll seek the pure Thought-world, and bask in her allure. Myself again I crept within, Scanned with keen care The temple where She'd shone, but could not find her there. I sought and sought. But O her soul Has not since thrown Upon my own One beam! Yea, she is gone, is gone. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SOULS LAKE by ROBERT STUART FITZGERALD SONGS FOR THE PEOPLE by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER CARPE DIEM by JEAN ANTOINE DE BAIF FLOATING HEARTS by GEORGE BRADFORD BARTLETT THE YOUNG BROTHER by WILLIAM ROSE BENET WRITTEN IN ZIMMERMAN'S SOLITUDE by MATILDA BARBARA BETHAM-EDWARDS I SHALL FASHION SONGS by LOIS R. CARPENTER THE OUTLAW by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR. JACOB'S DREAM; FROM A PICTURE BY WASHINGTON ALLSTON by GEORGE CROLY |