If this is what you meant, Why did you not go by? I had got used to my lonely place And amid the shadows had found a face, A phantom-face 'neath a pallid sky, A phantom-face 'neath a leaden tent -- Why did you not go by, If this is what you meant? Why did you not pass on, If this is what you meant? Why did you rise like a dumb moss-rose, Brooding in somnolent repose, Just where the moonlight shone, On the path of my content? Why did you not pass on, If this is what you meant? Why did you not go past, If this is what you meant? Why did you fling abroad in the air A royal ransom of rich despair? Why with rain were your petals so full And with dew why were you so beautiful? The charm that held me fast Had never then been rent. Why did you not go past, If this is what you meant? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE NATIONAL PAINTINGS: COL. TRUMBULL'S 'THE DECLARATION...' by FITZ-GREENE HALLECK THE ROSE OF PEACE by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS STANZAS, OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF A RELATIVE ABROAD by BERNARD BARTON THE ART OF BOOK-KEEPING by SAMUEL LAMAN BLANCHARD SIC VOS NON VOBIS by ADA CAMBRIDGE A NIGHT IN JUNE by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN |