All's over, then: does truth sound bitter
...As one at first believes?
Hark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter
...About your cottage eaves!
And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,
...I noticed that, to-day;
One day more bursts them open fully
...--You know the red turns gray.
To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?
...May I take your hand in mine?
Mere friends are we,--well, friends the merest
...Keep much that I resign:
For each glance of the eye so bright and black.
...Though I keep with heart's endeavour,--
Your voice, when you wish the snowdrops back,
...Though it stay in my soul for ever!--
Yet I will but say what mere friends say,
...Or only a thought stronger;
I will hold your hand but as long as all may,
...Or so very little longer!
Robert Browning (1812-89)
...As one at first believes?
Hark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter
...About your cottage eaves!
And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,
...I noticed that, to-day;
One day more bursts them open fully
...--You know the red turns gray.
To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?
...May I take your hand in mine?
Mere friends are we,--well, friends the merest
...Keep much that I resign:
For each glance of the eye so bright and black.
...Though I keep with heart's endeavour,--
Your voice, when you wish the snowdrops back,
...Though it stay in my soul for ever!--
Yet I will but say what mere friends say,
...Or only a thought stronger;
I will hold your hand but as long as all may,
...Or so very little longer!
Robert Browning (1812-89)
