Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO HER WHO WISHED ME TO FORGET HER, by JOHN CHALK CLARIS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO HER WHO WISHED ME TO FORGET HER, by                    
First Line: Forget thee! No, that wish is vain
Last Line: To think it has not poisoned thine!
Alternate Author Name(s): Brooke, Arthur
Subject(s): Forgetfulness; Love; Memory


XII.

1.

FORGET thee! no, that wish is vain—
Through every chance and change of ill
This hopeless heart, this aching brain,
Shall guard thy worshipped image still.

2.

That image which from boyhood's hour,—
Though sometimes in the shifting scene
I missed awhile its purer power,—
Hath still my fancy's idol been.

3.

And what my spirit's worst despair
Could ne'er resign through all the past,
Now stamped again so freshly there
Shall lingering haunt me to the last.

4.

And though the path before me spread
Can lead but through a waste of pain,
I'll think at every step I tread
Thy smile may meet me once again.

5.

That sometimes as I range along
The desert of my future doom,
Thy star-light look the clouds among
May brighten life's surrounding gloom.

6.

Yes, where my sighs can never reach
From far I shall behold thee shining,
And Time perhaps may almost teach
My soul to gaze without repining.

7.

But rather bless the kind decree
Which kept thy cup unmixed with mine;
My bitter draught will sweeter be
To think it has not poisoned thine!





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