Page:Poems and ballads (IA balladspoems00swinrich).pdf/73

VII.

O dust and ashes, once thought sweet to smell!

With me it is not, is it with thee well?
O sea-drift blown from windward back to lee!
Couldst thou not watch with me?

VIII.

The old year's dead hands are full of their dead flowers,

The old days are full of dead old loves of ours,
Born as a rose, and briefer born than she;
Couldst thou not watch with me?

IX.

Could two days live again of that dead year,

One would say, seeking us and passing here,
Where is she? and one answering, Where is he?
Couldst thou not watch with me?