| Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909. | | | | Poems, Second Series, 1855 | | Separation |
| | [First published 1855.]
STOP—Not to me, at this bitter departing, 1 | |
| Speak of the sure consolations of Time. | |
| Fresh be the wound, still-renew’d be its smarting, | |
| So but thy image endure in its prime. | |
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| But, if the stedfast commandment of Nature | 5 |
| Wills that remembrance should always decay; | |
| If the lov’d form and the deep-cherish’d feature | |
| Must, when unseen, from the soul fade away— | |
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| Me let no half-effac’d memories cumber! | |
| Fled, fled at once, be all vestige of thee— | 10 |
| Deep be the darkness, and still be the slumber— | |
| Dead be the Past and its phantoms to me! | |
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| Then, when we meet, and thy look strays towards me, | |
| Scanning my face and the changes wrought there,— | |
| Who, let me say, is this Stranger regards me, | 15 |
| With the grey eyes, and the lovely brown hair? | |
| | | Note 1. Separation—Title] Faded Leaves. III. Separation 1855. [back] | | |
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