Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
To L. L. (Author: Oscar Wilde)
p.799
- Could we dig up this long-buried treasure,
Were it worth the pleasure,
We never could learn love's song,
We are parted too long.
- Could the passionate past that is fled
Call back its dead,
Could we live it all over again,
Were it worth the pain!
- I remember we used to meet
By an ivied seat,
And you warbled each pretty word
With the air of a bird;
- And your voice had a quaver in it,
Just like a linnet,
And shook, as the blackbird's throat
With its last big note;
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- And your eyes, they were green and grey
Like an April day,
But lit into amethyst
When I stooped and kissed;
- And your mouth, it would never smile
For a long, long while,
Then it rippled all over with laughter
Five minutes after.
- You were always afraid of a shower,
Just like a flower:
I remember you started and ran
When the rain began.
- I remember I never could catch you,
For no one could match you,
You had wonderful, luminous, fleet
Little wings to your feet.
- I remember your hairdid I tie it?
For it always ran riot
Like a tangled sunbeam of gold:
These things are old.
- I remember so well the room,
And the lilac bloom
That beat at the dripping pane
In the warm June rain;
- And the colour of your gown,
It was amber-brown,
And two yellow satin bows
From your shoulders rose.
- And the handkerchief of French lace
Which you held to your face
Had a small tear left a stain?
Or was it the rain?
- On your hand as it waved adieu
There were veins of blue;
In your voice as it said good-bye
Was a petulant cry,
- You have only wasted your life.
(Ah, that was the knife!)
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When I rushed through the garden gate
It was all too late.
- Could we live it over again,
Were it worth the pain,
Could the passionate past that is fled
Call back its dead!
- Well, if my heart must break,
Dear love, for your sake,
It will break in music, I know.
Poets' hearts break so.
- But strange that I was not told
That the brain can hold
In a tiny ivory cell,
God's heaven and hell.