The Ella Higginson Blog: "Then and Now"

Then and Now

I thought I did not care—till you were gone,
And I heard the wind grieving thro’ the leaves,
To the plaintive rhythm of the midnight rain
        As it dripped, dripped, dripped, from the time-worn eaves.

The while I danced with tireless feet, and light,
        You held no place within my care-free mind;
Nor when, upon my dappled mare, I raced,
        Undaunted and triumphant, with the wind.

For then my very soul was full of life
        That pulsed and throbbed and raced my being through,
And I was all-sufficient to myself—
        Ah, then, I gave no lightest thought to you!

But when I crossed a field one winter’s day

And heard a slender brook go singing by;

When a pale crocus opened by the way,

A swift sweet memory moved my heart to sigh.

And when I hear the restless, wind-vex’d leaves
Grieve to the rhythm of the midnight rain,
Thro’ all my being thrills the vain desire

To feel your warm, heart-shaken touch again.