| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XVI. Crossed Hands and Closed Eyes
If I had known | | By Adelaide D. Rollston |
| | | SHE lay with lilies on her pulseless breast, | |
| Dim, woodland lilies wet with silver dew. | |
| ‘Dear heart,’ he said, ‘in life she loved them best! | |
| For her sweet sake the fragrant buds were blown, | |
| For her in April-haunted nooks they grew | 5 |
| Oh, love, if I had known! | |
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| ‘If I had known, when yesterday we walked, | |
| Her hand in mine, along the hedges fair, | |
| That even then the while we careless talked, | |
| The shadow of a coming loss was there, | 10 |
| And death’s cold hand was leading us apart— | |
| If I had known the bud she would not wear | |
| Nor touch, lest she should mar that perfect grace, | |
| To-day would press its dewy, golden heart | |
| Against her poor, dead face! | 15 |
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| ‘Last year, when April woods were all aglow, | |
| She said, “if it be death to fall asleep,” | |
| And, bending, kissed the lilies sweet and wet, | |
| “A dreamless sleep from which none wake to weep!— | |
| When I lie down to that long slumber, dear, | 20 |
| And life for you has dark and empty grown, | |
| Come to me then, and though I shall not hear, | |
| Lay your sad lips to mine, and whisper low: | |
| If I had known! Oh, love, if I had known! | |
| That you would not forget.”’ | 25 | | | |
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