Poems of Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in The Casket, 1829/Change
CHANGE.
I only asked, oh! let me hear
That dearest voice again,
Altho', lute-like, its notes had lost
Their old accustomed strain.
I did not ask that words of love
Upon thy lips should be;
I did not ask that thou shouldst breathe
Of other days to me;
I did not say, give me the rose,
Altho' it was so dear,
I only prayed to live within
Its perfum'd atmosphere.
We met; what did that meeting teach
But what I long have known—
That thou wert changed, yet that my heart
Was utterly thine own.
Somewhat of sorrow or of shame
I looked to meet in thee,
Tho' Love had lost all else, I deemed
He must keep memory.
No colour came upon thy cheek,
No change within thine eye,
There was not even a fault'ring word,
Not even a single sigh.
The wound is deepened in my heart,
My last vain fancy o'er,
And now I only ask of Heaven—
To look on thee no more.