The Lost Mistress

Use Tab to move through poem lines. Press Enter or Space to select a line. Hold Shift while selecting a second line to create a shared range.

1. All's over, then—does truth sound bitter
2. As one at first believes?
3. Hark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter
4. About your cottage eaves.
5.  
6. II.
7. And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,
8. I noticed that to-day;
9. One day more bursts them open fully
10. —You know the red turns gray.
11.  
12. III.
13. To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?
14. May I take your hand in mine?
15. Mere friends are we,—well, friends the merest
16. Keep much that I'll resign:
17.  
18. IV.
19. For tho' no glance of the eyes so black
20. But I keep with heart's endeavour,—
21. If you only wish the snowdrops back
22. That shall stay in my soul for ever!—
23.  
24. V.
25. —Yet I will but say what mere friends say,
26. Or only a thought stronger;
27. I will hold your hand but as long as all may,
28. Or so very little longer!