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

Theodore Wratislaw b. 1871

A Vain Desire

DEAR, did you know how sweet to me

Was every glance of yours, how sweet

The laugh that lights your face with glee,

The passing murmur of your feet,

And seeing perchance with grief how vain

The love that makes you sadly dear

Did grant for my unuttered pain

A whispered word, a smile, a tear

Dropped like a star from Paradise,

Then might I bless my weary state,

Though you behold me from the skies

And I on earth am desolate.