All Lovely Things
All lovely things will have an ending,
All lovely things will fade and die,
And youth, that's now so bravely spending,
Will beg a penny by and
by.
Fine ladies soon are all forgotten,
And goldenrod is dust when
dead,
The sweetest flesh and flowers are rotten
And cobwebs tent the
brightest head.
Come back, true love! Sweet youth, return!--
But time
goes on, and will, unheeding,
Though hands will reach, and eyes will yearn,
And the wild days set true hearts bleeding.
Come back, true love!
Sweet youth, remain!—
But goldenrod and daisies wither,
And over them
blows autumn rain,
They pass, they pass, and know not whither.
Chance Meetings
In the mazes of loitering people, the watchful and furtive,
The shadows of
tree-trunks and shadows of leaves,
In the drowse of the sunlight, among the
low voices,
I suddenly face you,
Your dark eyes return for a
space from her who is with you,
They shine into mine with a sunlit desire,
They say an 'I love you, what star do you live on?'
They smile and then
darken,
And silent, I answer 'You too--I have known you,--I love
you!--'
And the shadows of tree-trunks and shadows of leaves
Interlace
with low voices and footsteps and sunlight
To divide us forever.
Music I Heard
Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was
more than bread;
Now that I am without you, all is desolate;
All that
was once so beautiful is dead.
Your hands once touched this table and
this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.
These things
do not remember you, beloved,
And yet your touch upon them will not
pass.
For it was in my heart that you moved among them,
And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;
And in my heart they will remember
always,
—They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.
http://www.poetrysoup.com/poet/Conrad_Aiken
All lovely things will have an ending,
All lovely things will fade and die,
And youth, that's now so bravely spending,
Will beg a penny by and
by.
Fine ladies soon are all forgotten,
And goldenrod is dust when
dead,
The sweetest flesh and flowers are rotten
And cobwebs tent the
brightest head.
Come back, true love! Sweet youth, return!--
But time
goes on, and will, unheeding,
Though hands will reach, and eyes will yearn,
And the wild days set true hearts bleeding.
Come back, true love!
Sweet youth, remain!—
But goldenrod and daisies wither,
And over them
blows autumn rain,
They pass, they pass, and know not whither.
Chance Meetings
In the mazes of loitering people, the watchful and furtive,
The shadows of
tree-trunks and shadows of leaves,
In the drowse of the sunlight, among the
low voices,
I suddenly face you,
Your dark eyes return for a
space from her who is with you,
They shine into mine with a sunlit desire,
They say an 'I love you, what star do you live on?'
They smile and then
darken,
And silent, I answer 'You too--I have known you,--I love
you!--'
And the shadows of tree-trunks and shadows of leaves
Interlace
with low voices and footsteps and sunlight
To divide us forever.
Music I Heard
Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was
more than bread;
Now that I am without you, all is desolate;
All that
was once so beautiful is dead.
Your hands once touched this table and
this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.
These things
do not remember you, beloved,
And yet your touch upon them will not
pass.
For it was in my heart that you moved among them,
And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;
And in my heart they will remember
always,
—They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.
http://www.poetrysoup.com/poet/Conrad_Aiken