| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1426. Meeting after Long Absence |
| | | By Lilla Cabot Perry |
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I
AS SHE FEARED IT WOULD BE
HERE in this room where first we met, | |
| And where we said farewell with tears, | |
| Here, where you swore “Though you forget, | |
| My love shall deeper grow with years,” | |
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| Here, where the pictures on the wall, | 5 |
| The very rugs upon the floor, | |
| The smallest objects you recall,— | |
| I am awaiting you once more. | |
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| The books that we together read,— | |
| From off their shelves they beckon me. | 10 |
| All here seems living! What is dead? | |
| What is the ghost I fear to see? | |
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| Unchanged am I. Did you despise | |
| My love as “small”?—it fills my heart! | |
| You come—a stranger from your eyes | 15 |
| Looks out—and, meeting, first we part. | |
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II
AS IT WAS
I TOLD myself in singing words | |
| That you were changed and I was true; | |
| I would not trust winds, waves, and birds | |
| That change was not in you. | 20 |
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| I sang love’s dirge before we met,— | |
| “As murdered corpse in river bed | |
| In eyes my heart cannot forget | |
| I see Love lying dead!” | |
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| You came—one look—on word was spoken, | 25 |
| Our hands, once clasped, forgot to part, | |
| And, though our silence is unbroken, | |
| Heart has found rest on heart. | |
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