I KNEW that I should be his bride, And to my tearful eyes Lay that fair future, half descried Through a divine surprise: I knew that I should be his wife, And that his arm would bend Around me down the walks of life, As friend sustaining friend: And yet when I beheld him there, Amid a joyous throng, Amid the witty and the fair, Who knew and prized him long, -- Amid the comrades of his youth, The kinsmen of his line, I almost faltered at the truth With which I called him mine. I saw they thought that I was proud To claim him as mine own, While all my being inly bowed As with a weight unknown. For if I dared my heart to place Above its own just meed, I might be distanced in a race In which the strong succeed! But now that years have rolled away, A variegated stream, And, one by one, that bright array Has vanished like a dream; Now that the very name of wife Has higher titles earned, I smile to ponder on that strife Of feelings undiscerned. Ah! had I known him but as they, How weary might have been The intercourse of every day, The rarely-changing scene, -- The life that over-long may prove For passion or for power, But too, too, short for that still love Which blesses every hour. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO AMERICA by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 123 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI TO THE CUCKOO (1) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH TO HAFIZ by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE HAPPY FOOL by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE PASTURE POND by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE WANDERER: 2. IN FRANCE: TERRA INCOGNITA by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: CHRIST'S SYMPATHY by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |