Possession

Bayard Taylor (1825–1878)

“IT was our wedding-day

A month ago,” dear heart, I hear you say.

If months, or years, or ages since have passed,

I know not: I have ceased to question Time.

I only know that once there pealed a chime

Of joyous bells, and then I held you fast,

And all stood back, and none my right denied,

And forth we walked: the world was free and wide

Before us. Since that day

I count my life: the Past is washed away.

It was no dream, that vow:

It was a voice that woke me from a dream;—

A happy dream, I think; but I am waking now,

And drink the splendor of a sun supreme

That turns the mist of former tears to gold.

With these arms I hold

The fleeting promise, chased so long in vain:

Ah, weary bird! thou wilt not fly again:

Thy wings are clipped, thou canst no more depart—

Thy nest is builded in my heart!

I was the crescent; thou

The silver phantom of the perfect sphere,

Held in its bosom: in one glory now

Our lives united shine, and many a year—

Not the sweet moon of bridal only—we

One lustre, ever at the full, shall be:

One pure and rounded light, one planet whole,

One life developed, one completed soul!

For I in thee, and thou in me,

Unite our cloven halves of destiny.

God knew his chosen time.

He bade me slowly ripen to my prime,

And from my boughs withheld the promised fruit,

Till storm and sun gave vigor to the root.

Secure, O Love! secure

Thy blessing is: I have thee day and night:

Thou art become my blood, my life, my light:

God’s mercy thou, and therefore shalt endure.