Oh! can or can I not live on, Forgetting thee, my love forgone? 'Tis true, where joyful faces crowd And merry tongues are ringing loud, Or where some needful work unwrought May call for all my care and thought, Or where some landscape, bath'd in light, May spread to fascinate my sight, Thy form may melt a while, as fade Our shades within some welkin shade, And I awhile may then live on, Forgetting thee, my love forgone. But then the thrilling thought comes on, Of all thy love that's now forgone; Thy daily toil to earn me wealth, Thy grief to see me out of health, Thy yearning readiness to share The burden of my toil and care, And all the blessings thou hast wrought In my behalf by deed and thought. And then I seem to hear thee calling, Gloomy fac'd with tear drops falling, 'Canst thou then so soon live on, Forgetful of my love forgone?' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THOUGHTS OF A TINY PIG by DAVID IGNATOW THE PLAYERS ASK FOR A BLESSING ON THE PSALTERIES AND ON THEMSELVES by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS MY AUNT by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES THE MOON by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE ABSINTHE-DRINKER by ARTHUR WILLIAM SYMONS |