Poems (Thaxter)/Presage
PRESAGE.
If, some day, I should seek those eyes So gentle now,—and find the strange, Pale shadow of a coming change,To chill me with sad surprise;
Shouldst thou recall what thou hast given, And turn me slowly cold and dumb, And thou thyself again becomeRemote as any star in heaven;
Would the sky ever seem again Perfectly clear? Would the serene, Sweet face of nature steal betweenThis grief and me, to dull its pain?
O not for many a weary day Would sorrow soften to regret, And many a sun would rise and setEre I, with cheerful heart, could say
"All undeserved it came. To-day God takes it back again, because Too beautiful a thing it wasFor such as I to keep for aye."
And ever, through the coming years, My star, remote in happy skies, Would seem more heavenly fair through eyesYet tremulous with unfallen tears.
