I KNEW that I should be his bride, And to my tearful eyes Lay that fair future, half descried Through a divine surprise: I knew that I should be his wife, And that his arm would bend Around me down the walks of life, As friend sustaining friend: And yet when I beheld him there, Amid a joyous throng, Amid the witty and the fair, Who knew and prized him long, -- Amid the comrades of his youth, The kinsmen of his line, I almost faltered at the truth With which I called him mine. I saw they thought that I was proud To claim him as mine own, While all my being inly bowed As with a weight unknown. For if I dared my heart to place Above its own just meed, I might be distanced in a race In which the strong succeed! But now that years have rolled away, A variegated stream, And, one by one, that bright array Has vanished like a dream; Now that the very name of wife Has higher titles earned, I smile to ponder on that strife Of feelings undiscerned. Ah! had I known him but as they, How weary might have been The intercourse of every day, The rarely-changing scene, -- The life that over-long may prove For passion or for power, But too, too, short for that still love Which blesses every hour. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON GEORGE HERBERT'S BOOK, THE TEMPLE, SENT TO A GENTLEWOMAN by RICHARD CRASHAW TO R. B. by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS EVEN SO by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI THE VINE by MUHAMMAD AL-MU'TAMID II CELESTIAL HEIGHTS by ALFRED AUSTIN TO THE SHAH (2) by AWHAD AD-DIN 'ALI IBN VAHID MUHAMMAD KHAVARANI |