VI + 

Absence + 

In this fair stranger’s eyes of grey + 

Thine eyes, my love, I see. + 

I shudder: for the passing day + 

Had borne me far from thee. + 

This is the curse of life: that not + 

A nobler calmer train + 

Of wiser thoughts and feelings blot + 

Our passions from our brain; + 

But each day brings its petty dust + 

Our soon-chok’d souls to fill, + 

And we forget because we must, + 

And not because we will. + 

I struggle towards the light; and ye, + 

Once-long’d-for storms of love! + 

If with the light ye cannot be, + 

I bear that ye remove. + 

I struggle towards the light; but oh, + 

While yet the night is chill, + 

Upon Time’s barren, stormy flow, + 

Stay with me, Marguerite, still! + 