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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  836. Absence

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Robert Bridges. b. 1844

836. Absence

WHEN my love was away, 
Full three days were not sped, 
I caught my fancy astray 
Thinking if she were dead, 
 
And I alone, alone:         5
It seem’d in my misery 
In all the world was none 
Ever so lone as I. 
 
I wept; but it did not shame 
Nor comfort my heart: away  10
I rode as I might, and came 
To my love at close of day. 
 
The sight of her still’d my fears, 
My fairest-hearted love: 
And yet in her eyes were tears:  15
Which when I question’d of, 
 
‘O now thou art come,’ she cried, 
”Tis fled: but I thought to-day 
I never could here abide, 
If thou wert longer away.’  20