| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| If You Were Here |
| | | Philip Bourke Marston (1850–87) |
| | | | | A Song in Winter |
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| O LOVE, if you were here | |
| This dreary, weary day,— | |
| If your lips, warm and dear, | |
| Found some sweet word to say,— | |
| Then hardly would seem drear | 5 |
| These skies of wintry gray. | |
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| But you are far away,— | |
| How far from me, my dear! | |
| What cheer can warm the day? | |
| My heart is chill with fear, | 10 |
| Pierced through with swift dismay; | |
| A thought has turn’d Life sere: | |
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| If you from far away | |
| Should come not back, my dear; | |
| If I no more might lay | 15 |
| My hand on yours, nor hear | |
| That voice, now sad, now gay, | |
| Caress my listening ear; | |
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| If you from far away | |
| Should come not more, my dear,— | 20 |
| Then with what dire dismay | |
| Year joined to hostile year | |
| Would frown, if I should stay | |
| Where memories mock and jeer! | |
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| But I would come away | 25 |
| To dwell with you, my dear; | |
| Through unknown worlds to stray,— | |
| Or sleep; nor hope, nor fear, | |
| Nor dream beneath the clay | |
| Of all our days that were. | 30 |
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