| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXVII. Vain Longing
‘If I could hold your hands’ | | Anonymous |
| | | IF I could hold your hands to-night, | |
| Just for a little while, and know | |
| That only I, of all the world, | |
| Possessed them so. | |
| |
| A slender shape in that old chair, | 5 |
| If I could see you here to-night, | |
| Between me and the twilight pale— | |
| So light and frail. | |
| |
| Your cool white dress, its folding lost | |
| In one broad sweep of shadow grey; | 10 |
| Your weary head just drooped aside, | |
| That sweet old way. | |
| |
| Bowed like a flower-cup dashed with rain, | |
| The darkness crossing half your face, | |
| And just the glimmer of a smile | 15 |
| For one to trace. | |
| |
| If I could see your eyes that reach | |
| Far out into the farthest sky, | |
| Where past the trail of dying suns | |
| The old years lie. | 20 |
| |
| Or touch your silent lips to-night, | |
| And steal the sadness from their smile, | |
| And find the last kiss they have kept | |
| This weary while! | |
| |
| If it could be—Oh, all in vain | 25 |
| The restless trouble of my soul | |
| Sets, as the great tides of the moon, | |
| Toward your control! | |
| |
| In vain the longings of the lips, | |
| The eye’s desire and the pain; | 30 |
| The hunger of the heart—O love, | |
| Is it in vain? | | | | |
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