Poem by Isa Knox

Never to Know

  ONE within in a crimson glow,
          Silently sitting;
  One without on the falling snow,
          Wearily flitting;
          Never to know	
  That one looked out with yearning sighs,
  While one looked in with wistful eyes,
          And went unwitting.

  What came of the one without, that so
          Wearily wended?
  Under the stars and under the snow
          His journey ended!
          Never to know
  That the answer came to those wistful eyes,
  But passed away in those yearning sighs,
          With night winds blended.

  What came of the one within, that so
          Yearned forth with sighing?
  More sad, to my thinking, her fate, the glow
          Drearily dying;
          Never to know
  That for a moment her lite was nigh,
  And she knew it not and it passed her by,
          Recall denying.

  These were two hearts that long ago—
          Dreaming and waking—
  Each to a poet revealed its woe,
          Wasting and breaking;
          Never to know
  That if each to other had but done so,
  Both had rejoiced in the crimson glow,
And one had not lain ’neath the stars and snow
          Forsaken—forsaking!

1. Shadow
2. Wind and Stars
3. A Greenness o’er My Vision Passed
4. The Brides of Quair
5. Ode on the Centenary of Burns

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