AN HOUR

You only promised me a single hour:

But in that hour I journeyed through a year

Of life: the joy of finding you,— the fear

Of losing you again,— the sense of power

To make you all my own,— the sudden shower

Of tears that came because you were more dear

Than words could ever tell you,— then,— the clear

Soft rapture when I plucked love's crimson flower.

An hour,— a year,— I felt your bosom rise

And fall with mystic tides, and saw the gleam

Of undiscovered stars within your eyes,—

A year,— an hour? I knew not, for the stream

Of love had carried me to Paradise,

Where all the forms of Time are like a dream.