Heart of my heart! Time was when moments went
As petals cast upon a rushing stream,
So swift, so sweet, I could but catch their gleam
Ere gone were all their beauty and their scent―
With the slow-ebbing sea of ages blent.
Then thou wert with me! Now, alas, they seem
Long as the long-drawn torment of a dream―
Long as the endless way to sweet Content.
Yon sea the murmurs―is it blue or gray?
Yon moon that rises―is it dull or bright?
How shall I live to meet another day,
How, having met it, live on to the night―
When all my soul aches that thou art away,
And all my being for love’s lost delight?
“In Absence” as it appears in Higginson’s When the Birds Go North Again (1898).