Parted - An 1866 Poem

It is twenty years since my love and I

Stood together, hand in hand,

To say farewell in the chestnut woods,

While the spring came o'er the land.

 

The grass burst up from the quickening earth

And the buds on the hawthorn bough,

And the birds were astir on the linden trees,

And they sang as they never sing now.

 

And out of the woods came the low, clear call,

Of a blackbird on her nest;

And my love had violets in here eyes,

And a primrose on her breast.

 

For twenty years it has stayed with me,

The scent of that primrose faint :

And the light that shone out of tear filled eyes,

Like the eyes of a dying saint.

 

And the blackbird's call yet rings in my ear,

Whenever the spring days rise :

And forever as clear as in by-gone days,

Is the light of my darling's eyes.

November 1, 1866. Memphis Public Ledger 3(51): 4.