Poems (Welby)/O! Had We Only Met

by Amelia Welby

O! HAD WE ONLY MET.

O! had we only met,
 When life and hope were new,
When love, unmingled with regret,
 Lay on our hearts like dew,
I had not heaved a sigh
 When wrapt in that sweet trance,
I raised my own and met thine eye,
 Returning glance for glance.

O! do not prize me less
 For yielding to the power,
The soft delicious dreaminess.
 That filled that twilight hour;
I thought its spells were thine,
 Around my spirit wove,
And half forgot it was not mine
 To give thee love for love.

Love! Did I call it love?
 It will not bear the name!
A softer thought our bosoms move,
 A tenderer, milder flame!
I feel it in the tone
 That thrilled thy low reply,
As thy warm lip, beside my own,
 Responded sigh for sigh.

I love thee not, but O!
 If we had met in youth,
When first we dreamed of passion's glow,
 Its fervor and its truth,
Perhaps it had been mine,
 With whispers soft and low,
To place my little hand in thine,
 And murmur vow for vow.

Dear one! for dear thou art,
 Thou know'st it is not mine,
To lift the veil from this deep heart
 Nor yet to gaze in thine,
But O! were I to speak
 Of all I hope and fear,
Even thou would'st scarcely deem it weak,
 To give me tear for tear.