A Poem for Thursday

An Echo from Willow-Wood
Christina Rossetti, ca. 1870

Two gazed into a pool, he gazed and she,
Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think,
Pale and reluctant on the water's brink,
As on the brink of parting must be,
Each eyed the other's aspect, she and he,
Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,
Each teated bitterness which both must drink,
There on the brink of life's dividing sea.
Lilies upon the surface, deep below
Two wistful faces craving for each,
Resolute and reluctant without speech: -
A sudden ripple made the faces flow,
One moment joined, to vanish out of reach:
So those hearts joined, and ah were parted so.

Reproduced in Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor

- M