Poem by John McCrae

Then and Now

Beneath her window in the fragrant night
I half forget how truant years have flown
Since I looked up to see her chamber-light,
Or catch, perchance, her slender shadow thrown
Upon the casement; but the nodding leaves
Sweep lazily across the unlit pane,
And to and fro beneath the shadowy eaves,
Like restless birds, the breath of coming rain
Creeps, lilac-laden, up the village street
When all is still, as if the very trees
Were listening for the coming of her feet
That come no more; yet, lest I weep, the breeze
Sings some forgotten song of those old years
Until my heart grows far too glad for tears.

1. The Dying of Pere Pierre
2. Upon Watts’ Picture ”Sic Transit”
3. Unsolved
4. The Shadow of the Cross
5. The Anxious Dead

Ella Wilcox Then and Now ("A little time agone, a few brief years")

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