Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ALAS! by PHOEBE CARY

Poet Analysis

First Line: SINCE, IF YOU STOOD BY MY SIDE TODAY
Last Line: AND TO BE AS WE ARE TO-DAY!
Subject(s): SEPARATION;
SINCE, if you stood by my side to-day,
Only our hands could meet,
What matter that half the weary world
Lies out between our feet;

That I am here by the lonesome sea,
You by the pleasant Rhine? --
Our hearts were just as far apart
If I held your hand in mine!

Therefore, with never a backward glance,
I leave the past behind;
And standing here by the sea alone,
I give it to the wind.

I give it all to the cruel wind,
And I have no word to say;
Yet, alas! to be as we have been,
And to be as we are to-day!



Home: PoetryExplorer.net