ABSENCE

Robert Bridges 1844=1930

When my love was away, 

Full three days were not sped, 

I caught my fancy astray 

Thinking if she were dead, 

And I alone, alone: 

It seem'd in my misery 

In all the world was none 

Ever so lone as I. 

I wept; but it did not shame 

Nor comfort my heart: away 

I rode as I might, and came 

To my love at close of day. 

The sight of her still'd my fears, 

My fairest-hearted love: 

And yet in her eyes were tears: 

Which when I question'd of, 

"O now thou art come," she cried, 

''Tis fled: but I thought to-day 

I never could here abide, 

If thou wert longer away."

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