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Poems of Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in The Casket, 1829/Change

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2423807Landon in The Casket, 1829Change1829Letitia Elizabeth Landon


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.