I saw thee in lifes witching hour...

[Image: Anne Lee]

I saw thee in lifes witching hour

  I thought thee all divine

& sweeter still thou fairey flower

  Frail hope bespoke her mine

But why need I repent the day

  Which years have left with thee

Since one frail spring scarce stopt to say

  That hope can never be

The world full early frowned on me

  & shaped our lives contrary

It dashed the hopes I had for thee

  & made thee haughty Mary

For still methinks had I been born

  To meet lifes smiles so early

Pride neer had made me treat with scorn

  A name I loved so dearly

I felt in times now fled and gone

  By many a cheery token

The links that our hearts seem one

  Should not so soon be broken

But life a seeming shower at best

    Is nothing that it seems

& dreams of love were hope will rest

  Are nothing else but dreams

Poems of the Middle Period

ed. Eric Robinson, David Powell and P.M.S. Dawson

Volumes I-II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996)