Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A RECOLLECTION, by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A RECOLLECTION, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I knew that I should be his bride
Last Line: Which blesses every hour.
Alternate Author Name(s): Houghton, 1st Baron; Houghton, Lord
Subject(s): Love - Marital; Time; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love


I KNEW that I should be his bride,
And to my tearful eyes
Lay that fair future, half descried
Through a divine surprise:
I knew that I should be his wife,
And that his arm would bend
Around me down the walks of life,
As friend sustaining friend:

And yet when I beheld him there,
Amid a joyous throng,
Amid the witty and the fair,
Who knew and prized him long, --
Amid the comrades of his youth,
The kinsmen of his line,
I almost faltered at the truth
With which I called him mine.

I saw they thought that I was proud
To claim him as mine own,
While all my being inly bowed
As with a weight unknown.
For if I dared my heart to place
Above its own just meed,
I might be distanced in a race
In which the strong succeed!

But now that years have rolled away,
A variegated stream,
And, one by one, that bright array
Has vanished like a dream;
Now that the very name of wife
Has higher titles earned,
I smile to ponder on that strife
Of feelings undiscerned.

Ah! had I known him but as they,
How weary might have been
The intercourse of every day,
The rarely-changing scene, --
The life that over-long may prove
For passion or for power,
But too, too, short for that still love
Which blesses every hour.





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