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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  604. To Mary

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Charles Wolfe. 1791–1823

604. To Mary

IF I had thought thou couldst have died, 
    I might not weep for thee; 
But I forgot, when by thy side, 
    That thou couldst mortal be: 
It never through my mind had past         5
    The time would e’er be o’er, 
And I on thee should look my last, 
    And thou shouldst smile no more! 
 
And still upon that face I look, 
    And think ’twill smile again;  10
And still the thought I will not brook, 
    That I must look in vain. 
But when I speak—thou dost not say 
    What thou ne’er left’st unsaid; 
And now I feel, as well I may,  15
    Sweet Mary, thou art dead! 
 
If thou wouldst stay, e’en as thou art, 
    All cold and all serene— 
I still might press thy silent heart, 
    And where thy smiles have been.  20
While e’en thy chill, bleak corse I have, 
    Thou seemest still mine own; 
But there—I lay thee in thy grave, 
    And I am now alone! 
 
I do not think, where’er thou art,  25
    Thou hast forgotten me; 
And I, perhaps, may soothe this heart 
    In thinking too of thee: 
Yet there was round thee such a dawn 
    Of light ne’er seen before,  30
As fancy never could have drawn, 
    And never can restore!