Landon in The New Monthly 1835/The Parting Word
8
The New Monthly Magazine, Volume 45, Page 155
(155)
THE PARTING WORD.
I leant within the window
That overlooks the tide;
I saw our eyes were meeting,
And I saw nought beside.
I knew that we were parting;
That knowledge made me say
More than my lips had ventured
On any other day.
I asked "Will you forget me?"
Too long my dreaming heart
Recall'd the words we whisper'd,
As there we stood apart.
I see the open window,
The careless talkers near,
And how I talked as careless,
To shun their smile or sneer.
I see the silent river
That wander'd darkly on,
While the mournful light of midnight
Above the waters shone.
I said—so darkly flowing
My course of life has been;
With mocking lights, whose lustre
But partly show'd the scene.
I felt as if the morning
At length began to shine—
As if my spirit's day-break
Came from those eyes of thine.
I felt I deeply loved thee—
With fond and earnest love—
Firm as the earth beneath me,
True as the stars above.
Such love as I had painted
Thro' long and lonely years;
Too passionately happy,
My eyes were fill'd with tears.
I wish that I had shed them,
They had not then been kept,
For the hours that came the morrow
To weep as I have wept.
For I have felt the folly
Of all I fancied then;
Not with my own heart's loving
Am I beloved again.
I fear my evil planet,
Whose fortune has denied
The only heart I covet
In all a world so wide.
The memory of that moment
Is lingering with me yet:
I said to you remember!
Ah, must I say forget!
L. E. L.