The Tryst

I went, alone, to the old familiar place
Where we often met, —
When the twilight soften’d thy bright and radiant face
And the sun had set.
All things around seem’d whispering of the past,
With thine image blent —
Even the changeful spray which the torrent cast
As it downward went!
I stood and gazed with a sad and heavy eye
On the waterfall —
And with a shouting voice of agony
On thy name did call!

With a yearning hope, from my wrung and aching heart
I call’d on thee —
And the lonely echoes from the rocks above
They answer’d me!
Glad and familiar as a household word
Was that cherish’d name —
But in that grieving hour, faintly heard,
’Twas not the same!
Solemn and sad, with a distant knelling cry,
On my heart it fell —
'Twas as if the word “Welcome” had been answer’d by
The word “FAREWELLI”