I shut the rooms where we had been together; No place for me to be alone, I knew— So quiet now, with no exhilaration, No leaping thoughts tossed to and fro between us, No little deviltries half smothered, half discovered, Hiding a tenderness that shyly hung its head ... No coffee fragrance mingled with odor of tobacco; Only the candles burning their prayers for the departed, And the Sheraton sofa stretching its empty length of blue. I left the rooms where we had been together, To follow other leadings, find forgetfulness, And that exuberation, without which my spirit smothers. I tacked and trimmed with sails of breezy smocks and gew-gaws, Rattled my coin of bubble-badinage— Flew madly hither, round and yon, Nor minded the direction— Till I was full of the forgetfulness That comes when one has never time to think. Suddenly, like one who travels safely in his sleep, I found again the place where we had been together— God! how it rushed at me, like a dog, long-leashed, With glad, glad eyes, And yelps of mad delight— Rough paws clawing at my heart! Then I knew—@3there@1 in that nest of memories, There lay my true forgetfulness— Forgetfulness—@3remembering@1 All I held most dear! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...INTOXICATION by EMILY DICKINSON AT MAGNOLIA CEMETERY by HENRY TIMROD BEAUTIFUL SNOW by JOHN WHITAKER WATSON A CRADLE SONG OF THE NIGHT WIND by WILLIS BOYD ALLEN TO A MATTABASSETT (A CONNECTICUT INDIAN) by WALTER BARDECK MAGIC TOURS by CHARLOTTE LOUISE BERTLESEN |