GEORGE GORDON, LORD WHEN WE TWO PARTED When we two parted In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted, To sever for years, Pale grew thy cheek and cold, Colder thy kiss; Truly that hour foretold Sorrow to this. The dew of the morning And share in its shame. They name thee before me, Why wert thou so dear? Who knew thee too well: — In secret we met In silence I grieve, That thy heart could forget, Thy spirit deceive. 5 10 15 20 25 The magnet of their course is gone, or only points in vain The shore to which their shivered sail shall never stretch again. 'Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruined 15 When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled, turret wreath, All green and wildly fresh without, but And then we parted, worn and grey beneath. part, not as now we Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail. III In my youth's summer I did sing of one, Again I seize the theme, then but begun, find The furrows of long thought, and driedup tears, Which, ebbing, leave a sterile track behind. 25 O'er which all heavily the journeying years Plod the last sands of life, - where not a flower appears. |