William Stanley Braithwaite, "Love's Wayfaring" (1902)
How long ago it seems
When by the pebbled cove,
Our sweet, fair dreams
Took wing?
How long it is
What wasted years between;
What untouched hours of bliss,
And unlived dream
Time's sting!
Were not the high tides sweet!
The sails upon the stream—
The billows' bounding beat,
The seagull's scream
And swing.
What murmuring music rose
From zephyr's low tuned chords,
To which in Love's repose
Our hearts made words
To sing.
Ah, sweet, where is Love gone?
To what bourne west or east,
Shall you and I alone
Bide his behest
Wayfaring?
All days and nights shall we
Clothe our sad hearts in dreams—
Nurse bitter hopes that be
Of rents and seams
That wring?
Alas, what Time will bring,
We know not in what way.
Perchance in some soft Spring
Our roads will cross one day,
And Love-like doves will wing.
Published in Colored American Magazine, August 1902