When We Are Parted[]
Lancelot and Guinevere. Photo illustration by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879), 1874. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
When we are parted let me lie
In some far corner of thy heart,
Silent, and from the world apart,
Like a forgotten melody:
Forgotten of the world beside,
Cherish’d by one, and one alone,
For some lov’d memory of its own;
So let me in thy heart abide
When we are parted.
When we are parted, keep for me
The sacred stillness of the night;
That hour, sweet Love, is mine by right;
Let others claim the day of thee!
The cold world sleeping at our feet,
My spirit shall discourse with thine;—
When stars upon thy pillow shine,
At thy heart’s door I stand and beat,
Though we are parted.
This poem is in the public domain