From the recording First and Fairest
Mixed @ Granger Musik & VideoWerks, Inc.
Lyrics
That Day
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I stand by the river where both of us stood,
And there is but one shadow to darken the flood;
And the path leading to it, where both used to pass,
Has the step but of one, to take dew from the grass, -
One forlorn since that day.
The flowers of the margin are many to see;
None stoops at my bidding to pluck them for me.
The bird in the alder sings loudly and long -
My low sound of weeping disturbs not his song,
As thy vow did, that day.
I stand by the river, I think of that vow;
Oh, calm as the place is, vow-breaker, be thou!
I leave the flower growing, the bird unreproved;
Would I trouble thee rather than them, my beloved, -
And my lover that day?
Go, be sure of my love, by that treason forgiven;
Of my prayers, by the blessings they win thee
from Heaven;
Of my grief - (guess the length of the sword by
the sheath's)
By the silence of life, more pathetic than death!
Go - be clear of that day!