Classic Poem

FOR JANET

The pines are darkly swaying:
The skies are ashen-gray:
I mock my soul, delaying
The word I have to say.
As if above it thundered
That we, who are one heart,
Must now for aye be sundered,
My passion bids me part:
I dare not basely languish,
Nor press your lips to mine;
But with one cry of anguish,
My darling I resign.

Our dreams we two must smother:
The bitter truth is here:
This hand is for another,
Which I have held so dear!
To pray that, at the altar,
You may be bless'd above:-
Ah, help me, if I falter,
And keep me true to love!
But once, but once, look kindly-
Once clasp me with your spell:
Let joy and pain meet blindly,
And throb our dumb Farewell!