457. The Lost Mistress by Robert Browning
b"R Browning read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\\n\\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\\n\\n---------------------------------------\\n\\nThe Lost Mistress\\nby Robert Browning (1812 \\u2013 1889)\\n\\nAll 's over, then: does truth sound bitter\\n As one at first believes?\\nHark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter\\n About your cottage eaves!\\n\\n\\nAnd the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,\\n I noticed that, to-day;\\nOne day more bursts them open fully\\n \\u2014You know the red turns gray.\\n\\nTo-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?\\n May I take your hand in mine?\\nMere friends are we,\\u2014well, friends the merest\\n Keep much that I resign:\\n\\nFor each glance of the eye so bright and black,\\n Though I keep with heart's endeavour,\\u2014\\nYour voice, when you wish the snowdrops back,\\n Though it stay in my soul for ever!\\u2014\\n\\nYet I will but say what mere friends say,\\n Or only a thought stronger;\\nI will hold your hand but as long as all may,\\n Or so very little longer!\\n\\n\\n\\nFirst aired: 25 February 2008\\n\\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\\n\\nReading \\xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2009"