Parerga/They Say That Thou Art Absent
< Parerga
THEY SAY THAT THOU ART ABSENT.
I.
They say that thou art absent; but I feel it is not so,
Though between us soar the mountain-heights, and Ocean's billows flow:
In pleasure and in sorrow, Love, I ever think of thee;
And then thou art not absent; for thy spirit is with me.
They say that thou art absent; but I feel it is not so,
Though between us soar the mountain-heights, and Ocean's billows flow:
In pleasure and in sorrow, Love, I ever think of thee;
And then thou art not absent; for thy spirit is with me.
II.
If music float upon the air, I seem thy voice to hear;
If a gentle footstep kiss the earth, I think that thou art near;
If I gaze upon the lovely tints that deck the evening sky,
Thy beauty, treasured in my heart, is imag'd to the eye.
If music float upon the air, I seem thy voice to hear;
If a gentle footstep kiss the earth, I think that thou art near;
If I gaze upon the lovely tints that deck the evening sky,
Thy beauty, treasured in my heart, is imag'd to the eye.
III.
Oh, 'tis not to these outward things the power of Love's confined;
Over the spirit's hidden realms his mightiest chains are twined.
I have a world within my heart, the heart that's all thine own;
I list to thee—I gaze on thee—I think of thee alone.
Oh, 'tis not to these outward things the power of Love's confined;
Over the spirit's hidden realms his mightiest chains are twined.
I have a world within my heart, the heart that's all thine own;
I list to thee—I gaze on thee—I think of thee alone.
IV.
They marvel that I am not sad when thou art far away;
But they cannot tell the secret spell by which my soul is gay.
Then mourn not, Dearest, for the pain that absence gives to me,
For his love from him who truly loves can never absent be.
They marvel that I am not sad when thou art far away;
But they cannot tell the secret spell by which my soul is gay.
Then mourn not, Dearest, for the pain that absence gives to me,
For his love from him who truly loves can never absent be.