Why Did We Meet?

“O, why did ever I meet you?”

     That is my own heart’s cry;

It fills my ears when waking,

     It stills not when I lie.

It follows me through darkness,

     Nor fears the golden light;

I hear it o’er the tumult,

     Of life from morn till night.

“O, why did ever I meet you?”

     I clasp you in my dreams;

And as I smooth your tresses,

     Love’s sky with rapture gleams;

But at the very moment

     When life seems most divine,

I wake, with fear and trembling, –

     No longer are you mine.

“O, why did ever I meet you?”

     Since nothing can we be

But friends? ‘Tis not sufficient,

     Love bids all friendship flee;

Love wants its own, forever,

     Naught else will satisfy;

And when love is one’s master,

     What use love to defy?

              Refrain

‘Tis not that you’re unworthy,

     You’re better, far, than I;

‘Tis that the fates have willed it,

     We pass each other by.

But all the day and even,

     It is my own heart’s cry:

“O, why did ever I meet you?”

     Can you, fair one, tell why?

Sept. 18, 1894

Pub. in “Boston

Courier”, Oct, 7

   1894