Now would you prove the man I love
As I saw him then?
He was of them who're slow to move,
One of your still men;
One of your men self-communing
Who see sheep on a hill,
Ships out at sea or birds a-wing
Where you see nil.
And what they see they seldom say,
Holding speech to be vain;
And yet so kin to earth are they
They smell the coming rain.
The earth can teach them without speech,
They know as they are known —
Why should they preach to the out-of-reach,
Or counsel Nature's own?
He never was a man to talk,
He was too wise;
But things he'd see out on his walk
Would blind another's eyes.
But when it came to speak about them
‘ Twas another thing.
He'd say, “What use is it to shout them?
I want to sing!”
A smallish head, with jet-black hair
And eyes grey-blue,
You felt when'er he lookt you fair
That he must be true;
And when he smil'd his dear and shy way
Sidelong his mouth,
I always thought the sun fell my way
And the wind South.
So I possest the knowledge blest
That Love had held him fast
Since the day our eyes confest,
The first time and the last.
“Since then,” he said, “I never durst
Look at you at all,
For fear you'd see the hunger and thirst
That kept me like a thrall.