Back to the Border
The tremulous morning is breakingAgainst the white waste of the sky,And hundreds of birds are awakingIn tamarisk bushes hard by.I, waiting alone in the station,Can hear in the distance, grey-blue,The sound of that iron desolation,The train that will bear me from you.
‘T will carry me under your casement,You’ll feel in your dreams as you lieThe quiver, from gable to basement,The rush of my train sweeping by.And I shall look out as I pass it,—Your dear, unforgettable door,‘T was ours till last night, but alas! itWill never be mine any more.
Through twilight blue-grey and uncertain,Where frost leaves the window-pane free,I’ll look at the tinsel-edged curtainThat hid so much pleasure for me.I go to my long undone dutyAlone in the chill and the gloom,My eyes are still full of the beautyI leave in your rose-scented room.
Lie still in your dreams; for your tressesAre free of my lingering kiss.I keep you awake with caressesNo longer; be happy in this!From passion you told me you hatedYou’re now and for ever set free,I pass in my train, sorrow-weighted,Your house that was Heaven to me.
You won’t find a trace, when you waken,Of me or my love of the past,Rise up and rejoice! I have takenMy longed-for departure at last.My fervent and useless persistenceYou never need suffer again,Nor even perceive in the distanceThe smoke of my vanishing train!