Poem by Alice Meynell

After a Parting

Farewell has long been said; I have foregone thee;
    I never name thee even.
But how shall I learn virtues and yet shun thee?
    For thou art so near Heaven
That Heavenward meditations pause upon thee.

Thou dost beset the path to every shrine;
    My trembling thoughts discern
Thy goodness in the good for which I pine;
    And, if I turn from but one sin, I turn
Unto a smile of thine.

How shall I thrust thee apart
    Since all my growth tends to thee night and day—
To thee faith, hope, and art?
    Swift are the currents setting all one way;
They draw my life, my life, out of my heart.

1. A Poet's Wife
2. To the Body
3. Beyond Knowledge
4. Nurse Edith Cavell
5. “Soeur Monique”

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