 | [Poems by Cary in] The Poetical Works Of Alice and Phoebe Cary |  |
355
DO YOU BLAME HER?
Ne'er lover spake in tenderer words,
While mine were calm, unbroken;
Though I suffered all the pain I gave
In the No, so firmly spoken.
While mine were calm, unbroken;
Though I suffered all the pain I gave
In the No, so firmly spoken.
I marvel what he would think of me,
Who called it a cruel sentence,
If he knew I had almost learned to-day
What it is to feel repentance.
Who called it a cruel sentence,
If he knew I had almost learned to-day
What it is to feel repentance.
For it seems like a strange perversity,
And blind beyond excusing,
To lose the thing we could have kept,
And after, mourn the losing.
And blind beyond excusing,
To lose the thing we could have kept,
And after, mourn the losing.
And this, the prize I might have won,
Was worth a queen's obtaining;
And one, if far beyond my reach,
I had sighed, perchance, for gaining.
Was worth a queen's obtaining;
And one, if far beyond my reach,
I had sighed, perchance, for gaining.
And I know—ah! no one knows so well,
Though my heart is far from breaking—
'T was a loving heart, and an honest hand,
I might have had for the taking.
Though my heart is far from breaking—
'T was a loving heart, and an honest hand,
I might have had for the taking.
And yet, though never one beside
Has place in my thought above him,
I only like him when he is by,
'T is when he is gone I love him.
Has place in my thought above him,
I only like him when he is by,
'T is when he is gone I love him.
Sadly of absence poets sing,
And timid lovers fear it;
But an idol has been worshiped less
Sometimes when we came too near it.
And timid lovers fear it;
But an idol has been worshiped less
Sometimes when we came too near it.
And for him my fancy throws to-day
A thousand graces o'er him;
For he seems a god when he stands afar
And I kneel in my thought before him.
A thousand graces o'er him;
For he seems a god when he stands afar
And I kneel in my thought before him.
But if he were here, and knelt to me
With a lover's fond persistence,
Would the halo brighten to my eyes
That crowns him now in the distance?
With a lover's fond persistence,
Would the halo brighten to my eyes
That crowns him now in the distance?
Could I change the words I have said, and say
Till one of us two shall perish,
Forsaking others, I take this man
Alone, to love and to cherish?
Till one of us two shall perish,
Forsaking others, I take this man
Alone, to love and to cherish?
Alas! whatever beside to-day
I might dream like a fond romancer,
I know my heart so well that I know
I should give him the self-same answer.
I might dream like a fond romancer,
I know my heart so well that I know
I should give him the self-same answer.
| [Poems by Cary in] The Poetical Works Of Alice and Phoebe Cary | |