Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

William Wilfred Campbell 1861–1918

A Lake Memory

CampbllWW

THE LAKE comes throbbing in with voice of pain

Across these flats, athwart the sunset’s glow,

I see her face, I know her voice again,

Her lips, her breath, O God, as long ago.

To live the sweet past over I would fain,

As lives the day in the red sunset’s fire,

That all these wild, wan marshlands now would stain,

With the dawn’s memories, loves and flushed desire.

I call her back across the vanished years,

Nor vain—a white-armed phantom fills her place;

Its eyes the wind-blown sunset fires, its tears

This rain of spray that blows about my face.