University of Virginia Library


14

AH, WHEN?

I came at eve on a sunset field unknown to me,
Unknown and yet known.
Here did I run as a boy, or loitered a lover,
Ah, when?
I came at dawn on a river, visited never,
Strange, yet unstrange,
For I could follow faithful the wind of that river
Away to sea.
I was driven late in the night to the house of a stranger,
Never that house had I seen;
Though I never slept in it, yet could I tell each room of it,
I knew my way.
At times a lonely face from a crowd looks out at me,
Startling me, wherefore?

15

That sudden, flitting face I remember dimly,
Dimly familiar.
They played me music at midnight, never yet heard by me;
Unheard, yet heard,
Ah, when?