Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AT A GATE ON THE HILL, by JOHN LAURENCE RENTOUL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AT A GATE ON THE HILL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: At a gate on the hill in the parting hour
Last Line: "in a deathless tryst with thee!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Gage, Gervais
Subject(s): Love - Nature Of; Memory


I

AT a gate on the hill in the parting hour,
When the wind blew soft on the sea,
He laid in the maiden's hand a flower:
"O sweet, thy pledge from me!
Years shall be sped, the flower be dead,
But not my love to thee;
O, not my love to thee!
Keep thou it still in a heart on the hill
In a tender memorie!"

II

At a gate on the hill, in a weary hour
When the rough wind vext the sea,
She held in her hand the faded flower:
"O sweet, my pledge from thee!
The years are sped, the flower is dead,
But not thy love to me,
Though there come no news from the sea:
It liveth still in a heart on the hill
In a quenchless memorie! "

III

On a grave by the hill he knelt—alone,
The wanderer, back from the sea;
He knelt alone by a white grave-stone:
And, carven curiously,
The scroll he read:
—"The flower is dead:
But not thy love in me,
Though thou stayest long on the sea:
By a higher hill it waiteth still,
At a fairer gate for thee:
In a deathless tryst with thee!"





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