"Song to a Lute"

Song to a Lute

The evening star comes to the sky, 

To the steadfast shore, the sea; 

But thou, so dear and so long waited for, 

Comest not to me. 

The sun returns at dawn and floods 

With light earth’s darkest spot; 

But thou, so dear and my heart’s only light, 

Returnest not. 

The sky waits nightly for the star, 

The shore waits for the sea; 

Far, lone, are they . . . . . But ah, how lonelier 

I wait for thee! 

"Song to a Lute" as it appears in Ella Higginson's The Vanishing Race (1911).