Sydney Dobell—"He Loves and He Rides Away"

excerpt from HE LOVES AND HE RIDES AWAY
(England in Time of War, 1856)

Day and night, day and night,
And I saw no light,
Night and day, night and day,
And in my woe I lay
And dreamed the dreams they dream who cannot sleep:
My speech was withered, and I could not pray;
My tears were frozen, and I could not weep.

I saw the hawthorn rise
Between me and the skies,
I felt the shadow was from pole to pole,
I felt the leaves were shed,
I felt the birds were dead,
And on the earth I snowed the winter of my soul.

While I look on her I seem
Once again in the sweet dream
Of that enchanted day,
When, underneath the hawthorn tree,
I loved my love, and my love loved me:
And lost in love we lay,
And saw the happy ships upon the yielding sea.