453. Absence by Robert Bridges
R Bridges read by Classic Poetry Aloud: Giving voice to the poetry of the past.\nwww.classicpoetryaloud.com\n\n--------------------------------------------\n\nAbsence\nby Robert Bridges (1844\u20131930)\n\nWhen my love was away,\nFull three days were not sped,\nI caught my fancy astray\nThinking if she were dead,\nAnd I alone, alone:\nIt seem'd in my misery\nIn all the world was none\nEver so lone as I.\n\nI wept; but it did not shame\nNor comfort my heart: away\nI rode as I might, and came\nTo my love at close of day.\n\nThe sight of her still'd my fears,\nMy fairest-hearted love:\nAnd yet in her eyes were tears:\nWhich when I question'd of,\n\n'O now thou art come,' she cried,\n''Tis fled: but I thought to-day\nI never could here abide,\nIf thou wert longer away.'\n\n\n\nFirst aired: 8 February 2008\n\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\n\nReading \xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2009