When Love Passed By by Leigh Gordon Giltner

I dreamt of love in the golden glory / Of youth unshadowed by cloud or care; / Steeped in the love-lore of song and story, / I said, "My Love shall be wondrous fair."

I said, "Her hands shall be filled with flowers, / (My heart shall tell me when Love draws nigh!) / She shall steal sweet boon from the graceless hours, / Her eyes shall be blue as the cerule sky.

"Her hair shall be bright as the stars' gold gleaming, / Her lips shall be red with her heart's rich wine, / Her face shall be fair as my fondest dreaming, / Each pulse of my being shall call her mine!"

Then long for the voice of my heart I harkened, / Tranced in love's hoping--all hope else forgot-- / I waited lonely; the daylight darkened, / The twilight deepened--but love came not.

Then One passed by in the dusking shadows, / The night's dusk shadows slept on her hair-- / She passed like a gleam o'er the dew-drenched meadows, / And my heart throbbed fast--but she was not fair.

Her face was pale and her dark eyes pleading, / Her smile was wistful and gravely sweet; / She passed me by where I stood unheeding, / And dropped a violet at my feet.

She went her way o'er the silent meadows, / (Ah, traitorous heart that you tricked me so!) / I sat alone in the deepening shadows-- / Love had passed by--and I did not know.