Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume II. Love. 1904. | | | | VII. Love’s Power | | “Forget thee?” | | John Moultrie (1799–1874) |
| | | “FORGET thee?”—If to dream by night, and muse on thee by day, | |
| If all the worship, deep and wild, a poet’s heart can pay, | |
| If prayers in absence breathed for thee to Heaven’s protecting power, | |
| If wingèd thoughts that flit to thee—a thousand in an hour, | |
| If busy Fancy blending thee with all my future lot— | 5 |
| If this thou call’st “forgetting,” thou indeed shalt be forgot! | |
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| “Forget thee?”—Bid the forest-birds forget their sweetest tune; | |
| “Forget thee?”—Bid the sea forget to swell beneath the moon; | |
| Bid the thirsty flowers forget to drink the eve’s refreshing dew; | |
| Thyself forget thine “own dear land,” and its “mountains wild and blue;” | 10 |
| Forget each old familiar face, each long-remembered spot;— | |
| When these things are forgot by thee, then thou shalt be forgot! | |
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| Keep, if thou wilt, thy maiden peace, still calm and fancy-free, | |
| For God forbid thy gladsome heart should grow less glad for me; | |
| Yet, while that heart is still unwon, O, bid not mine to rove, | 15 |
| But let it nurse its humble faith and uncomplaining love; | |
| If these, preserved for patient years, at last avail me not, | |
| Forget me then;—but ne’er believe that thou canst be forgot! | | | | |
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