Love

The Broken Tryst

by Francis Ledwidge 1887–1917

From Songs of the Fields (1915)

LoveNature

The dropping words of larks, the sweetest tongue
That sings between the dusks, tell all of you;
The bursting white of Peace is all along
Wing-ways, and pearly droppings of the dew
Emberyl the cobwebs' greyness, and the blue
Of hiding violets, watching for your face,
Listen for you in every dusky place.

You will not answer when I call your name,
But in the fog of blossom do you hide
To change my doubts into a red-faced shame
By'n by when you are laughing by my side?
Or will you never come, or have you died,
And I in anguish have forgotten all?
And shall the world now end and the heavens fall?

✦ ✦ ✦

The speaker waits among larks and dew for a beloved who does not come, and asks at the end if she has died, or whether the world is to end and the heavens fall.

MLA

Ledwidge, Francis. “The Broken Tryst.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/ledwidge/6/.

Chicago

Ledwidge, Francis. “The Broken Tryst.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/ledwidge/6/.

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