Mathilde Blind (1841-1896). Love in Exile (Songs). IV. (VII.) "Why will You Haunt me Unawares". Alfred H. Miles, ed. 1907. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

Love in Exile (Songs)
IV. (VII.) “Why will You Haunt me Unawares”

By Mathilde Blind (1841–1896)


WHY will you haunt me unawares,
And walk into my sleep,
Pacing its shadowy thoroughfares,
Where long-dried perfume scents the airs,
While ghosts of sorrow creep,	5
Where on Hope’s ruined altarstairs,
With ineffectual beams,
The Moon of Memory coldly glares
Upon the land of dreams?

My yearning eyes were fain to look	10
Upon your hidden face;
Their love, alas! you could not brook,
But in your own you mutely took
My hand, and for a space
You wrung it till I throbbed and shook,	15
And woke with wildest moan
And wet face channelled like a brook
With your tears or my own.