Amy Levy (1861-1889). London Poets. J. C. Squire, ed. 1921. A Book of Women's Verse

J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921.

London Poets

By Amy Levy (1861–1889)


THEY trod the streets and squares where now I tread,
With weary hearts, a little while ago;
When, thin and grey, the melancholy snow
Clung to the leafless branches overhead;
Or when the smoke-veil’d sky grew stormy-red	5
In Autumn; with a re-arisen woe
Wrestled, what time the passionate spring-winds blow;
And paced scorch’d stones in summer. They are dead.

The sorrow of their souls to them did seem
As real as mine to me, as permanent.	10
To-day—it is the shadow of a dream,
The half-forgotten breath of breezes spent.
So shall another soothe his woe supreme—
No more he comes, who this way came and went.