Never the Time and the Place
Never the Time and the Place
Original Text
Robert Browning, Jocoseria (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1883). PR 4211 A1 ROBA.
1Never the time and the place
2 And the loved one all together!
3This path--how soft to pace!
4 This May--what magic weather!
5Where is the loved one's face?
6In a dream that loved one's face meets mine,
7 But the house is narrow, the place is bleak
8Where, outside, rain and wind combine
9 With a furtive ear, if I strive to speak,
10 With a hostile eye at my flushing cheek,
11With a malice that marks each word, each sign!
12O enemy sly and serpentine,
13Uncoil thee from the waking man!
14 Do I hold the Past
15 Thus firm and fast
16Yet doubt if the Future hold I can?
17This path so soft to pace shall lead
18Thro' the magic of May to herself indeed!
19Or narrow if needs the house must be,
20Outside are the storms and strangers: we
21Oh, close, safe, warm sleep I and she,--
22I and she!
Publication Start Year
1883
RPO poem Editors
F. E. L. Priestley
RPO Edition
3RP 3.193.
Rhyme