Oh! how sad the recollection! in the midst of joy it <br /> springs; <br />What a train of faded pleasures that fond idea brings! <br />All those hours are gone for ever—they were sweet, but <br /> pass'd away <br />Like the sunny clouds that vanish in the midst of dying <br /> day. <br /> <br />I have number'd all the sorrows this tortured heart has <br /> known; <br />I have counted each delight I would ever call my own; <br />But the moments are so woven, that the guiding clew is <br /> gone, <br />And the sorrow and the pleasure blended into one. <br /> <br />That one—oh! when we parted, it was glittering in that <br /> tear; <br />That one—'twas in the accents that told we both were <br /> dear: <br /> <br /> <br />It dwelt in those fond glances, too fleet, too early past; <br />It lived in that embrace—the tenderest—the last! <br /> <br />The last! oh, in that word there are ages of despair! <br />No summer thought of brightness can dwell untroubled <br /> there; <br />Yet my soul was in that moment so fraught with joy and <br /> pain, <br />And ' tis only recollection can give back the soul again!<br /><br />Louisa Stuart Costello<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-past-5/
