Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Hamilton Aïdé b. 1829Remember or Forget
I
I watch’d the water flow,
As we together watch’d it
One little year ago:
The soft rain patter’d on the leaves,
The April grass was wet.
Ah! folly to remember;
’T is wiser to forget.
June’s palace pav’d with gold;
I watch’d the rose you gave me
Its warm red heart unfold;
But breath of rose and bird’s song
Were fraught with wild regret.
’T is madness to remember;
’T were wisdom to forget.
Alas! no more, I knew,
To gather gleaner’s measure
Of the love that fell from you.
For me, no gracious harvest—
Would God we ne’er had met!
’T is hard, Love, to remember, but
’T is harder to forget.
The nightingales are fled,
The cornfields are deserted,
And every rose is dead.
I sit beside my lonely fire,
And pray for wisdom yet:
For calmness to remember,
Or courage to forget.