Adieu in Tears
I
I feared not then to breathe a last farewell,
For solace bloomed where silent hours grew kind;
Though bitter winds of parting fiercely fell,
I wove our days in memory’s tender mind.
My wings were borne by conscience clear and bright,
By passion ruled yet tempered by control;
I thought that loss would grant my spirit light,
And solitude would steady my torn soul.
Yet when thy back was turned from grieving sight,
A shadow clung and would not drift away;
It haunted thought from morning into night,
A ghost no strength of mine could chase to day.
Thus parting proved not peace but deeper pain,
For love once lost returns in sorrow’s reign.
II
Through trembling tears I gazed upon thy face,
Though joy and grief together ruled my breath;
Yet had I known thy cheeks would wear such trace
Of sorrow carved by parting’s gentle death,
I ne’er had dared to hold that final view,
Nor spoken words that sealed our aching part;
I ne’er had dreamed that moment was the few
Last beats allowed to love’s devoted heart.
I would not even yield my soul to care,
Had fate revealed the cost such love would bring—
To see thee weep in grief beyond repair,
While silence wrapped us in its tightening ring.
For love that lives yet feeds on tears alone
Turns sweetest joy to grief more sharp than stone.
III
I was the thorn beside thy tender bloom,
Yet never meant to draw thy precious pain;
If healing grew where sorrow found its room,
Then love itself made mercy from our strain.
Through thee I learned the depths affection knows,
A hidden sea my heart had never seen;
And thus I walked forbidden paths of woes
To seek the life where hope might yet convene.
I longed to clasp thy heart and read each line
Thy love had written softly in my soul;
But when thy eyes with falling grief did shine,
My strength dissolved beyond my firm control.
O let each tear thou shed in parting’s hour
Live on in me as love’s undying flower.
IV
When thou didst turn away in silent woe,
And hid’st the tears thy trembling heart had borne,
The world grew cold as if it ceased to glow,
And hope lay pale as dawn too soon outworn.
No sun could warm the sorrow of that sight,
No kindly hour erase its bitter stain;
For love, once severed in departing night,
Returns no more but echoes back as pain.
Each falling tear became a living scar,
Engraved upon the chambers of my breast,
A star of grief that burned both near and far,
And robbed my weary spirit of its rest.
Thus loss now reigns where once affection stood,
And feeds my days on memory’s aching flood.
