Летиция Элизабет Лэндон (Letitia Elizabeth Landon)

A Name

They named him—ah! yet
    Do I start at that name;
Have I still to forget?
    Is my heart still the same
Long hours have passed on
    Since that name was too dear;
Now its music is gone,
    It is death to my ear!

It tells of a false one,
    Ah! falsest to me;
My heart's life begun,
    It has ended, with thee!
I loved, as those love
    Who but one image know
In the blue sky above,
    On the fair earth below.

I had not a thought
    In which thou had'st no part;
In the wide world I sought
    But a place in thy heart.
To win it I gave
    All that had been my pride;
Like a child or a slave
    Subdued at thy side.
All homage was sweet
    I for thee could resign;
Others knelt at my feet,
    But I knelt at thine.

I was happy, I dreamed
    I could trust to thy word;
My soul's faith it seemed
    In my idol—and lord!
And yet thou could'st change—
    And, did we meet now,
Thy voice would be strange,
    And altered thy brow.

I thought I had schooled
    My heart from regret—
It will not be ruled,
    'Tis so hard to forget.
I live in a crowd,
    And I seem like the rest,
But my spirit is bowed
    By a grief unconfess'd.

From my pillow at night—
    'Tis so wretched—sleep flies,
And morning brings light
    And the tears to my eyes;
They speak, and I ask what
    It is they would say,
For the thoughts that I name not
    Are with thee, far away.

Twas a light word and careless
    That named thee again:
There were none by to guess
    Why I shuddered like pain.
But the damp on my brow,
    The pang at my heart,
Revealed to me how
    Wildly loved still thou art.

Yet, false one, farewell!
    I have still enough pride;
Though hopeless to quell,
    Yet at least it can hide.
But, ah! may an hour
    Be waiting for thee—
When Love, in his power,
    Shall avenge him for me!