Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
IantheWalter Savage Landor (1775–1864)
I
A path forbidden me!
Remember, while the Sun his blessing sheds
Upon the mountain-heads,
How often we have watch’d him laying down
His brow, and dropt our own
Against each other’s, and how faint and short
And sliding the support!
What will succeed it now? Mine is unblest,
Ianthe! nor will rest
But on the very thought that swells with pain.
O bid me hope again!
O give me back what Earth, what (without you)
Not Heaven itself can do—
One of the golden days that we have past;
And let it be my last!
Or else the gift would be, however sweet,
Fragile and incomplete.