Twilight Night

(The Argosy, March 1866.)


I

We met, hand to hand,
    We clasped hands close and fast,
As close as oak and ivy stand;
    But it is past:
    Come day, come night, day comes at last.

We loosed hand from hand,
    We parted face from face;
Each went his way to his own land.
    At his own pace,
    Each went to fill his separate place.

If we should meet one day,
    If both should not forget,
We shall clasp hands the accustomed way,
    As when we met
So long ago, as I remember yet.

II

Where my heart is (wherever that may be)
    Might I but follow!
If you fly thither over heath and lea,
O honey-seeking bee,
    O careless swallow,
Bid some for whom I watch keep watch for me.

Alas! that we must dwell, my heart and I,
    So far asunder.
Hours wax to days, and days and days creep by;
I watch with wistful eye,
I wait and wonder:
When will that day draw nigh - that hour draw nigh?

Not yesterday, and not, I think, to-day;
    Perhaps to-morrow.
Day after day 'to-morrow' thus I say:
I watched so yesterday
    In hope and sorrow,
Again to-day I watch the accustomed way.