We parted in kindness, but spoke not of parting;
We talk’d not of hopes that we both must resign;
I saw not her eyes, and but one teardrop starting
Fell down on her hand as it trembled in mine:
Each felt that the past we could never recover,
Each felt that the future no hope could restore,
She shudder’d at wringing the heart of her lover,
I dared not to say I must meet her no more.
Long years have gone ny, and the springtime smiles ever
As o’er our young loves it first smiled in their birth;
Long years have gone by, yet that parting, oh! never
Can it be forgotten by either on earth.
The note of each wild bird that carols toward heaven
Must tell her of swift-winged hopes that were mine,
While the dew that steals over each blossom at even
Tells me of the teardrop that wept their decline.