Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Oliver Madox Brown 1855–74

Before and After

AH! long ago since I or thou

Glanced past these moorlands brow to brow,

Our mixed hair streaming down the wind—

So fleet! so sweet!

I loved thy footsteps more than thou

Loved my whole soul or body through—

So sweet! so fleet! ere Fate outgrew the days wherein Life sinned!

And ah! the deep steep days of shame,

Whose dread hopes shrivelled ere they came,

Or vanished down Love ’s nameless void—

So dread! so dead!

Dread hope stripped dead from each soul’s shame,

Soulless alike for praise or blame—

Too dead to dread the eternities whose heaven its shame destroyed.