free-verse20 lines

The Girl I Left Behind Me

With sweet Regret'(the dearest thing that Yesterday has left us)'

We often turn our homeless eyes to scenes whence Fate has reft us.

Here sitting by a fading flame, wild waifs of song remind me

Of Annie with her gentle ways, the Girl I left behind me.

I stood beside the surging sea, with lips of silent passion'

I faced you by the surging sea, O brows of mild repression!

I never said''My darling, stay!''the moments seemed to bind me

To something stifling all my words for the Girl I left behind me.

The pathos worn by common things'by every wayside flower,

Or Autumn leaf on lonely winds, revives the parting hour.

Ye swooning thoughts without a voice'ye tears which rose to blind me,

Why did she fade into the Dark, the Girl I left behind me.

At night they always come to me, the tender and true-hearted;

And in my dreams we join again the hands which now are parted;

And, looking through the gates of Sleep, the pleasant Moon doth find me

For ever wandering with my Love, the Girl I left behind me.

You know my life is incomplete, O far-off faint Ideal!

When shall I reach you from a depth of darkness which is real?

So I may mingle, soul in soul, with her that Heaven assigned me;

So she may lean upon my love, the Girl I left behind me.