ERROR AND LOSS

ERROR AND LOSS

Upon an eve I sat me down and wept,

Because the world to me seemed nowise good;

Still autumn was it, and the meadows slept,

The misty hills dreamed, and the silent wood

Seemed listening to the sorrow of my mood:

I knew not if the earth with me did grieve,

Or if it mocked my grief that bitter eve.

Then ’twixt my tears a maiden did I see,

Who drew anigh me on the leaf-strewn grass,

Then stood and gazed upon me pitifully

With grief-worn eyes, until my woe did pass

From me to her, and tearless now I was,

And she mid tears was asking me of one

She long had sought unaided and alone.

I knew not of him, and she turned away

Into the dark wood, and my own great pain

Still held me there, till dark had slain the day,

And perished at the grey dawn’s hand again;

Then from the wood a voice cried: ‘Ah, in vain,

In vain I seek thee, O thou bitter-sweet!

In what lone land are set thy longed-for feet?’

Then I looked up, and lo, a man there came

From midst the trees, and stood regarding me

Until my tears were dried for very shame;

Then he cried out: ‘O mourner, where is she

Whom I have sought o’er every land and sea?

I love her and she loveth me, and still

We meet no more than green hill meeteth hill.’

With that he passed on sadly, and I knew

That these had met and missed in the dark night,

Blinded by blindness of the world untrue,

That hideth love and maketh wrong of right.

Then midst my pity for their lost delight,

Yet more with barren longing I grew weak,

Yet more I mourned that I had none to seek.