Poems (Thaxter)/Presage

by Celia Thaxter

PRESAGE.

If, some day, I should seek those eyes
 So gentle now,—and find the strange,
 Pale shadow of a coming change,
To chill me with sad surprise;

Shouldst thou recall what thou hast given,
 And turn me slowly cold and dumb,
 And thou thyself again become
Remote as any star in heaven;

Would the sky ever seem again
 Perfectly clear? Would the serene,
 Sweet face of nature steal between
This grief and me, to dull its pain?

O not for many a weary day
 Would sorrow soften to regret,
 And many a sun would rise and set
Ere I, with cheerful heart, could say

"All undeserved it came. To-day
 God takes it back again, because
 Too beautiful a thing it was
For such as I to keep for aye."

And ever, through the coming years,
 My star, remote in happy skies,
 Would seem more heavenly fair through eyes
Yet tremulous with unfallen tears.