Life and Phantasy by William Allingham: With frontispiece by Sir John E. Millais: A design by Arthur H. Hughes and a song for voice and piano forte |
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A SAD SONG. |
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| II. |
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| IV. |
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 | Life and Phantasy |  |
14
A SAD SONG.
I
Love once kiss'd me,Unfolded his wings, and fled.
Hath friendship miss'd me?
Is faith in all friendship dead?
If a spell could summon
These phantoms that come and go,
Of men and women,
Their very selves to show,
I might find (alas me!)
My seeking both night and day.
But I pass them, they pass me,
And each on a lonely way.
II
Soul, art thou friendless,A loser, sorrowful, weak?
Life is not endless,
Death is not far to seek.
Thou sailest ever,
Each moment, if sad or kind,
Down the great river;
It opens, it closes behind;
Far back thou see-est
The mountain-tops' faint azure;
Below, as thou flee-est,
The ripple, the shadow's erasure.
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III
Why dost thou, weeping,Stretch forth thine arms in vain?
It breaks thy sleeping;
O drop into trance again.
In dreams thou may'st go where
Child's Island is flowery grass'd,
Deep-skied,—it is nowhere
Save in the Land of the Past.
Time is dying,
The World too; forget their moan;
The sad wind sighing
Let murmur, this alone.
| Life and Phantasy | |