I AM happy with her I love, In a circle of charmed repose; My soul leaps up to follow her feet Wherever my darling goes; Whether to roam through the garden walks, Or pace the sands by the sea; -- There's never a shadow of doubt or fear Brooding 'twixt her and me: -- But through memory's twilight mists, Sometimes, I own, in sooth, Falters the face of one I loved In the fervent years of youth; -- The soft pathetic brow is there, With its glimmer and glance of golden hair, And scarcely shadowed by death's eclipse The delicate curve of the faultless lips, The tremulous, tender lips I kissed, So coyly raised at the sunset tryst, As we stood from the restless world apart, 'Mid the whispering foliage, heart to heart, In the fair, far years of youth. Yet, the vision is pure as heaven, Untouched by a hint of strife From the passion that moved itself to sleep, On the morning strand of life; And I know that my living Love would feel The tremor of ruthful tears, If I told of the sweetness and hope that drooped, So soon in the vanished years: @3She@1 would not banish the phantom sad Of a beauty discrowned and low; -- Can jealousy rest in the rose's breast Of a lily under the snow? Can the passion so warm and strong to-day Envy a ghost from the cypress shades For an hour astray? Or, the love that waned like a blighted May, In the dead days, long ago, Ah! long, how long ago! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STANZAS WRITTEN ON THE ROAD BETWEEN FLORENCE AND PISA by GEORGE GORDON BYRON DEEDS OF VALOR AT SANTIAGO by CLINTON SCOLLARD BEGGAR TO BEGGAR CRIED by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS PSALM 32. BEATI QUORUM REMISSA SUNT by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE ON A VIOLA D'AMORE by MATHILDE BLIND ASOLANDO: PROLOGUE by ROBERT BROWNING THE MARCH OF THE GHOSTS by VINCENT GODFREY BURNS |