Lyrics

SHE was the little wind that falls
Before the falling of the rain;
She was the one and early star
We lose and see and lose again.

She was the pang of the caress
That is too brief for our delight;
She was the torch another bore
And passed us in the night.

If you should say,
‘Who goes there?’
Then I would say,
‘You go there —
It ’s your hand at the door
And your foot on the stair
Of my heart every day
And everywhere.’

Then you would say,
‘It is long since I passed.’
And I would say,
‘It is year before last
Since you went on your way,
But I still hear you there
In my heart every day
And everywhere.’

Let us be happy to-night —
It snows.
See where the hemlocks glimmer white
In the dusk and the snow and the half moonlight;
They never stir as their burden grows.

And you — O lovely and pale and near —
Loosen the bond of your maiden will;
Fall on my heart like the falling snows,
And I will be still as the trees are still.

Suddenly, up through the forest gloaming,
A partridge rose, and that urgent whirring
Startled our breath and checked our roaming;
We stood and were still where the leaves were stirring.

So from the place of my deepest grieving
Memory starts on a wing so thrilling,
I stand in the dusk of my self-deceiving,
Struck to the heart with a pang that is killing.

In the street where you went away,
In the air that is still and gray,
Like golden fish in a stream
The leaves of the maple gleam;

And down in a place apart,
In the dark and the deep of my heart,
You shine in the pool of my grief
Like a fallen golden leaf.

I saw you as you passed
A hundred times before;
O come you in at last
And close the open door.

O close the door and mark
How deep a night is this;
And light our common dark
With the candle of your kiss.