There was a star that lit my life <br />It hath set to rise no more, <br />For Heaven, in mercy, withdrew the light <br />I fain would have knelt before. <br /> <br />There was a flower I pluck’d in my dreams, <br />Fragrant and fair to see; <br />Oh, would I had never awoke and found <br />Such bloom not here for me. <br /> <br />There was a harp, whose magic tone, <br />Echoed my faintest words <br />But Destiny’s hand, with a ruthless touch, <br />Hath rent the golden chords. <br /> <br /> <br />There was a path like Eden’s vale, <br />In which I was spell’d to stray, <br />But Destiny rose with a flaming sword <br />To guard that path alway. <br />V. <br />I’ve looked on eyes were like the star <br />Their light is quench’d for me; <br />And a soul I have known like the golden harp <br />That breath’d but melody. <br /> <br />And moments bright as that dream-land <br />Where bloomed the radiant flower. <br />Oh! would I had died ere I felt the gloom <br />Of this dark, joyless hour. <br /> <br />Fatal the time I rais’d mine eyes <br />To eyes whose light hath blasted <br />Yet ere I could turn from their glance away, <br />Life had with gazing wasted. <br /> <br />Bitter the thought that years may pass <br />Yet thus it must be ever, <br />To look on thy form, to hear thy voice <br />But nearer—never, never. <br /> <br />Could I but love as I love the stars, <br />Or the gush of the twilight breeze, <br />Or the pale light of the wandering moon <br />Glancing through forest trees; <br /> <br />With a sinless, calm, untroubled love, <br />Look upwards and adore <br />Could I but thus gaze life away, <br />Without the wish to soar. <br /> <br />In vain! in vain! I hope, I weep, <br />I kneel the long nights in prayer <br />Oh! better to die in the noon of life, <br />Than love, and yet despair.<br /><br />Lady Jane Wilde<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/destiny-252/
