free-verse16 lines
The Vow Forsworn.
by Charles Hamilton MusgroveUnweariedly he watches for the sign,
The sign I promised from the farthest goal,
My lover of a world no longer mine,
My human lover with his human soul.
Unweariedly he waits from day to day,
Nor knows, as I know now, that when we meet,
'Twill be as dewdrop on the hawthorn spray,--
The ultimate of God at last complete.
He still remembers that my eyes were blue,
Still dreams the autumn russet of my hair;
"In God's own time," he said, "I'll come to you;
You will be waiting; I will find you there!"
But now I know that he must never hear
The message that I promised to impart,
For should I breathe the secret in his ear
His soul would hearken--but 'twould break his heart!