Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

Philip Bourke Marston (1850–1887)

From Far

“O LOVE, come back, across the weary way

Thou wentest yesterday—

Dear Love, come back!”

“I am too far upon my way to turn:

Be silent, hearts that yearn

Upon my track.”

“O Love! Love! Love! sweet Love, we are undone,

If thou indeed be gone

Where lost things are.”

“Beyond the extremest sea’s waste light and noise,

As from Ghost-land, my voice

Is borne afar.”

“O Love, what was our sin, that we should be

Forsaken thus by thee?

So hard a lot!”

“Upon your hearts my hands and lips were set—

My lips of fire—and yet,

Ye knew me not.”

“Nay, surely, Love! We knew thee well, sweet Love!

Did we not breathe and move

Within thy light?”

“Ye did reject my thorns who wore my roses;

Now darkness closes

Upon your sight.”

“O Love! stern Love! be not implacable.

We loved thee, Love, so well!

Come back to us.”

“To whom, and where, and by what weary way

That I went yesterday,

Shall I come thus?”

“O weep, weep, weep! for Love, who tarried long

With many a kiss and song,

Has taken wing.

“No more he lightens in our eyes like fire;

He heeds not our desire,

Or songs we sing.”