| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| Robert Bridges. b. 1844 |
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| 836. Absence |
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| WHEN my love was away, | |
| Full three days were not sped, | |
| I caught my fancy astray | |
| Thinking if she were dead, | |
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| And I alone, alone: | 5 |
| It seem'd in my misery | |
| In all the world was none | |
| Ever so lone as I. | |
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| 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. | |
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| 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, | |
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| '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 |
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