Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SAILOR'S RETURN, by VICTOR GUSTAVE PLARR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SAILOR'S RETURN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I think I see her as she went
Last Line: Because so well I love her.
Subject(s): Death; Flowers; Love - Unrequited; Man-woman Relationships; Regret; Dead, The; Male-female Relations


I think I see her as she went
One summer eve adown the meadow;
Slant sunshine seemed her element,
And tender, lengthening shadow.

For oh! her eyes were soft and fair
As is the westering sun in heaven,
And the dear shadow of her hair
Was like the depth of even.

I think I see her wending by,
Her milking-pail upon her shoulder:
Her frank lips smile delightfully
On every poor beholder.

'Tis good-night here, and there good-e'en—
To all a courteous country greeting:
A blither lass was never seen
At village merry-meeting.

And now the pail is set adown;
She stops to tie her hat more neatly,
And pluck a burr from off her gown
With fingers moving featly.

And on one knee she kneels to cull
Some many-petalled meadow vagrant.
No wonder girls grow beautiful
Amid a world so fragrant!

And by the gateway in the shade,
With little sighs she cannot smother,
She plucks—a poor unworldly maid—
The petals one from t'other.

'He loves me! No, he loves me not!'
She pressed the flower against her bosom ...
Alas, the blue forget-me-not
Is now her only blossom.

And I, who never knew she cared,
And never found the heart for wooing,
Am standing, bowed and hoary-haired,
Alone in mine undoing,

Beside the green and swelling mound
Where others laid earth's sweetest daughter,
When I was far on foreign ground,
Or on the weary water.

Methinks that he were wise who might
Unweave, with many painful guesses,
The tangle tense and infinite
Of man and his distresses.

I cannot: so with swimming eyes
I'll pluck a flower that grows above her,
And pray to meet in Paradise,
Because so well I love her.





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