 | Poems |  |
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ALTER ET IDEM.
I
This day, in this same place, we met last year,And Absence, the omnipotent severer,
Since then on thee and me hath worked his will;
I would, my last year's love, as thou stand'st here,
My last year's love, I would I loved thee still!
II
Does not this place seem strange to thee and me—This fresh cool wash and whisper of the sea,
We knew so well together? Oh, how strange!
All's out of tune now—jars discordantly.
This old known place, I would it too would change!
III
How miserably the same those cliffs of grey!And see—a boat again, too, in the bay!
And yon lone sea-girt grey rock, sunset-lit
With those same tints we two admired that day!
My last year's love, hast thou forgotten it?
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IV
And thou—ah, wherefore art thou still so fair?Why are thy smiles still just so what they were,
Save that for me they speak not any love?
Why hast thou still that same bright golden hair,
Now I have no share in the praise thereof?
V
I may not call you now what I did then.Your lips and smiles are cold and alien.
Those times and these—how like! how wide apart!
I have lost what I shall never learn again.
I have forgotten the by-ways of your heart.
An. æt. 18.
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