Part 2 — "IF YOU WERE HERE"
Reading edition
A Song In Winter
O love, if you were here This dreary, weary day,— If your lips, warm and dear, Found some sweet word to say,— Then hardly would seem drear These skies of wintry gray.
But you are far away,— How far from me, my dear! What cheer can warm the day? My heart is chill with fear, Pierced through with swift dismay; A thought has turned Life sere:
If you, from far away, Should come not back, my dear; If I no more might lay My hand on yours, nor hear That voice, now sad, now gay, Caress my listening ear;
If you, from far away, Should come no more, my dear,— Then with what dire dismay Year joined to hostile year Would frown, if I should stay Where memories mock and jeer!
But I would come away To dwell with you, my dear; Through unknown worlds to stray,— Or sleep; nor hope, nor fear, Nor dream beneath the clay Of all our days that were.
Philip Bourke Marston [1850-1887]