Poem by Henry Kendall

Poems and Songs (1862). Geraldine

My head is filled with olden rhymes beside this moaning sea,
But many and many a day has gone since I was dear to thee!
I know my passion fades away, and therefore oft regret
That some who love indeed can part and in the years forget.
Ah! through the twilights when we stood the wattle trees between,
We did not dream of such a time as this, fair Geraldine.

I do not say that all has gone of passion and of pain;
I yearn for many happy thoughts I shall not think again!
And often when the wind is up, and wailing round the eaves,
You sigh for withered Purpose shred and scattered like the leaves,
The Purpose blooming when we met each other on the green;
The sunset heavy in your curls, my golden Geraldine.

I think we lived a loftier life through hours of Long Ago,
For in the largened evening earth our spirits seemed to grow.
Well, that has passed, and here I stand, upon a lonely place,
While Night is stealing round the land, like Time across my face;
But I can calmly recollect our shadowy parting scene,
And swooning thoughts that had no voice—no utterance, Geraldine.

1. Early Poems (1859-70). James Lionel Michael
2. Early Poems (1859-70). Elijah
3. Early Poems (1859-70). Caroline Chisholm
4. Other Poems (1871-82). How the Melbourne Cup was Won
5. Early Poems (1859-70). Cui Bono?

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