Perhaps you did not know how bright last night,
especially above your seaside door,
was all the marvelous starlit sky, and wore
white harmonies of very shining light.
Perhaps you did not want to seek the sight
of that remembered rapture any more.—
But then at least you must have heard the shore
roar with reverberant voices thro’ the night.
Those stars were lit with longing of my own,
and the ocean’s moan was full of my own pain.
Yet doubtless it was well for both of us
you did not come, but left me there alone.
I hardly ought to see you much again;
and stars, we know, are often dangerous.
especially above your seaside door,
was all the marvelous starlit sky, and wore
white harmonies of very shining light.
Perhaps you did not want to seek the sight
of that remembered rapture any more.—
But then at least you must have heard the shore
roar with reverberant voices thro’ the night.
Those stars were lit with longing of my own,
and the ocean’s moan was full of my own pain.
Yet doubtless it was well for both of us
you did not come, but left me there alone.
I hardly ought to see you much again;
and stars, we know, are often dangerous.
“And the stars” (Robinson Jeffers)
