SWEET, I have loved before. I know This longing that invades my days; This shape that haunts life's busy ways I know since long and long ago. This starry mystery of delight That floats across my eager eyes, This pain that makes earth Paradise, These magic songs of day and night -- I know them for the things they are: A passing pain, a longing fleet, A shape that soon I shall not meet, A fading dream of veil and star. Yet, even as my lips proclaim The wisdom that the years have lent, Your absence is joy's banishment, And life's one music is your name. I love you to my heart's hid core: Those other loves? how should one learn From marshlights how the great fires burn? Ah, no! I never loved before! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A LOVER'S QUARREL by ROBERT BROWNING RETREAT by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON HOME THOUGHTS FROM EUROPE by HENRY VAN DYKE THE DISMANTLED SHIP by WALT WHITMAN WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH by WALT WHITMAN THE ANNOYER by NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS |