Absence

Originally published in Tinsley's Magazine (Tinsley Brothers) vol.1 #4 (Nov 1867).

                To watch the long bright hours linger by;
                To see the rosy flush of Morning break
                O'er shore and sea, o'er upland, hill, and lake;
                To see the Even darken, deepen, die;
                To see the Moon her nightly duty take,
                The soft grave glory of her royalty;
                While evermore on heart and lip and eye
                Weighs the dull sense of something lost, or gone,
                That leaves no loveliness in things most fair,
                No music in the ripple's whispering tone,
                No glory in the golden autumn air,
                No joy in life's rich hours told one by one;—
                This is the heavy cross the absent bear!