The Girl I Left Behind Me

With sweet Regret(the dearest thing that Yesterday has left us)     We often turn our homeless eyes to scenes whence Fate has reft us.     Here sitting by a fading flame, wild waifs of song remind me     Of Annie with her gentle ways, the Girl I left behind me.     I stood beside the surging sea, with lips of silent passion     I faced you by the surging sea, O brows of mild repression!     I never saidMy darling, stay!the moments seemed to bind me     To something stifling all my words for the Girl I left behind me.     The pathos worn by common thingsby every wayside flower,     Or Autumn leaf on lonely winds, revives the parting hour.     Ye swooning thoughts without a voiceye tears which rose to blind me,     Why did she fade into the Dark, the Girl I left behind me.     At night they always come to me, the tender and true-hearted;     And in my dreams we join again the hands which now are parted;     And, looking through the gates of Sleep, the pleasant Moon doth find me     For ever wandering with my Love, the Girl I left behind me.     You know my life is incomplete, O far-off faint Ideal!     When shall I reach you from a depth of darkness which is real?     So I may mingle, soul in soul, with her that Heaven assigned me;     So she may lean upon my love, the Girl I left behind me.