| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Absent Yet Present | | By Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) |
| | | AS the flight of a river | |
| That flows to the sea | |
| My soul rushes ever | |
| In tumult to thee. | |
| |
| A twofold existence | 5 |
| I am where thou art; | |
| My heart in the distance | |
| Beats close to thy heart. | |
| |
| Look up, I am near thee, | |
| I gaze on thy face; | 10 |
| I see thee, I hear thee, | |
| I feel thine embrace. | |
| |
| As a magnet’s control on | |
| The steel it draws to it, | |
| Is the charm of thy soul on | 15 |
| The thoughts that pursue it. | |
| |
| And absence but brightens | |
| The eyes that I miss, | |
| And custom but heightens | |
| The spell of thy kiss. | 20 |
| |
| It is not from duty, | |
| Though that may be owed,— | |
| It is not from beauty, | |
| Though that be bestow’d; | |
| |
| But all that I care for, | 25 |
| And all that I know, | |
| Is that, without wherefore, | |
| I worship thee so. | |
| |
| Through granite it breaketh | |
| A tree to the ray; | 30 |
| As a dreamer forsaketh | |
| The grief of the day, | |
| |
| My soul in its fever | |
| Escapes unto thee; | |
| O dream to the griever! | 35 |
| O light to the tree! | |
| |
| A twofold existence | |
| I am where thou art; | |
| Hark, hear in the distance | |
| The beat of my heart! | 40 | | | |
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