| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXVIII. Loneliness
Without Her | | By Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) |
| | | WHAT of her glass without her? The blank grey | |
| There where the pool is blind of the moon’s face. | |
| Her dress without her? The tossed empty space | |
| Of cloud-rack whence the moon has passed away. | |
| Her paths without her? Day’s appointed sway | 5 |
| Usurped by desolate night. Her pillowed place | |
| Without her? Tears, ah me! for love’s good grace, | |
| And cold forgetfulness of night or day. | |
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| What of the heart without her? Nay, poor heart, | |
| Of thee what word remains ere speech be still? | 10 |
| A wayfarer by barren ways and chill, | |
| Steep ways and weary, without her thou art, | |
| Where the long cloud, the long wood’s counterpart, | |
| Sheds double darkness up the labouring hill. | | | | |
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