I HAVE not seen you since the Shadow fell From Heaven against your door. I know not if you bear your sorrow well: I only know your hearth is cold; your floor Will hear that soft and gliding tread no more. I know our ancient friendship now is over. I can love still, and so will not complain: I have not loved in vain; Taught long that art of sadness to discover Which draws stern solace from the wells of Pain. You love the Dead alone; -- or you have lost The power and life of Love in Time's untimely frost. You have stood up in the great monarch's court -- The court of Death: in spirit you have seen His lonely shades serene Where all the mighty men of old resort. The eyes of Proserpine Heavy and black have rested upon thine. Her vintage, wine from laurel-berries prest, You raised -- and laid you then the dark urn down, Scared by that Queen's inevitable frown, Just as the marble touched your panting breast? O! in the mirror of that poison cold What Shadow or what Shape did you behold? And she is dead: and you have long been dying; And are recovered, and live on! -- O, friend, Say, what shall be the end Of leaf-lamenting boughs and wintry sighing? When will the woods that moan Resume their green array? When will the dull, sad clouds be overblown, And a calm sunset close our stormy day? My thoughts pursue you still. I call them back. Once more they seek you, like the birds that rise Up from their reeds, and in a winding track Circle the field in which their forage lies; -- Or like some poor and downcast pensioner, Depressed and timid though his head be grey, That moves with curving steps to greet his lord, Whom he hath watched all day -- Yet lets him pass away without a word; And gazes on his footsteps from afar. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A PLANTATION BACCHANAL by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON THE PHILOSOPHER by EMILY JANE BRONTE THE NIGHTINGALE; A CONVERSATION POEM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE ACCORDING TO THE MIGHTY WORKING by THOMAS HARDY SCILLA'S METAMORPHOSIS: MELANCHOLY by THOMAS LODGE LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY |