Classic Poem

In early youth I loved a village maid,
And lived in ecstasy for days and days.
Her dainty feet through all my future strayed;
Her bright eyes beamed in all its purple haze.

My love was fierce in tenderness and joy:
It was a thing divine, and thrilled my soul,
Until it changed me from a foolish boy
To one who deemed the world in his control.

Waking, I wandered in a realm of dreams,
And builded castles by a distant sea,
Kissed everywhere by mellow glory gleams;
And she was queen, and dwelt with love and me.

Brief was the fickle summer of our bliss,
For cruel Fate our hearts asunder tore.
One autumn eve we parted, with a kiss,
And went in other ways forevermore.

Ah me! I know not what my life had been,
Lit by the tender lovelight of her eyes.
Perhaps I still, as then, had wandered in
The outskirts of God's blessed paradise.

I only know that oft, when leaves are red,
Vague loneliness comes o'er me like a spell,
And then I see her stand, with drooping head,
And hear again her sweet voice say “Farewell.”