COME back and bring my life again <br />That went with thee beyond my will! <br />Restore me that which makes me man <br />Or leaves me wretched, dead and chill! <br />Thy presence was of life a part; <br />Thine absence leaves the blank of death. <br />They wait thy presence—eye and heart, <br />With straining gaze and bated breath. <br /> <br />The light is darkness, if thine eyes <br />Make not the medium of its ray; <br />I see no star in evening skies, <br />Save thou look up and point the way. <br />Nor bursting buds in May’s young bloom, <br />Nor sunshine rippling o’er the sea, <br />Bears up to heaven my heart’s perfume <br />Save thou my monitor can be. <br /> <br />There are two paths for human feet,— <br />One bordered by a duty plain, <br />And one by phantoms cursed, yet sweet, <br />Bewildering heart and maddening brain; <br />The one will right and reason urge, <br />But thou must walk beside me there, <br />Or else I tread the dizzy verge, <br />And thou some guilt of loss must bear. <br /> <br />Come back, there is no cause on earth,— <br />No word of shame, no deed of wrong— <br />Can bury all of truth and worth, <br />And sunder bonds once firm and strong. <br />There is no duty, heaven-imposed, <br />That, velvet-gloved—an iron band. <br />Upon my heart-strings crushed and closed— <br />Thy hate should all my love withstand. <br /> <br />Days seem like ages—and, ere long, <br />On senseless ears the cry may fall; <br />Or, stilled by bitter shame and wrong, <br />The pleading voice may cease to call. <br />Come back! before the eyes grow dim <br />That keep but sight to see thee come, <br />Ere fail and falter hand and limb, <br />Whose strength but waits to fold thee home.<br /><br />Henry William Herbert<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/come-back-40/
