Read "In Memoriam Philip Bourke Marston" by Edith Nesbit online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
When you were tired and went away, / I said, amid my new heart-ache: / "When I catch breath from pain some day, / I will teach grief a worthier way, / And make a great song for his sake!"
Yet there is silence. O my friend, / You gave me love such years ago -- / A child who could not comprehend / Its worth, yet kept it to the end -- / How can I sing when you lie low?
Not always silence. O my dear, / Not when the empty heart and hand / Reach out for you, who are not near.
If you could see, if you could hear, / I think that you would understand.
The grief that can get leave to run / In channels smooth of tender song / Wins solace mine has never won.
I have left all my work undone, / And only dragged my grief along.
Many who loved you many years / (Not more than I shall always do), / Will breathe their songs in your dead ears; / God help them if they weep such tears / As I, who have no song for you.
You would forgive me, if you knew! / Silence is all I have to bring / (Where tears are many, words are few); / I have but tears to bring to you, / For, since you died, I cannot sing!