Edith Nesbit

Love's Guerdons

Dearest, if I almost cease to weep for you,
Do not doubt I love you just the same;
"Tis because my life has grown to keep for you
All the hours that sorrow does not claim.

All the hours when I may steal away to you,
Where you lie alone through the long day,
Lean my face against your turf and say to you
All that there is no one else to say.

Do they let you listen - do you lean to me?
Know now what in life you never knew,
When I whisper all that you have been to me,
All that I might never be to you?

Dear, lie still. No tears but mine are shed for you,
No one else leaves kisses day by day,
No one's heart but mine has beat and bled for you,
No one else's flowers push mine away".

No one else remembers - do not call to her,
Not alone she treads the churchyard grass;
You are nothing now who once were all to her,
Do not call her - let the strangers pass!