IF always I had slept within your arms More calmly had I slept. The dark-winged Hours with hush of whispering flight Had gently passed above That sleep, till one all bright Had stooped from Heaven's gate and shone on me like Love. If always I had wept within your arms More often had I wept, Consoled as Earth is comforted with rain. Hearts may have need of tears, And tears quench in the brain The irreparable dark fire that consumes and sears. If always I had smiled within your arms More softly had I smiled. For we who crowd at Life's perpetual Show Thus eager for the jest, Are cowards, afraid to know How Fate and our own souls stand in the obscure contest. But since I never might within your arms Live healed and reconciled, Pardon I ask for this too little change, Familiar looks, lest these With superscription strange Deface a sanctuary, tombs, relics, images. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHAT THE THRUSH SAID by JOHN KEATS A GENTLE ECHO ON WOMAN (IN THE DORIC MANNER) by JONATHAN SWIFT SONG by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE THE WANDERER: 6. PALINGENSIS: EUTHANASIA (WRITTEN AFTER LONG ILLNESS) by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON THE WANDERER by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER THE SHEARER'S SERENADE by PIERRE CASSEE A PASTORALL; THE ANTEMASQUE by JANE CAVENDISH |