Parting
Stay, O sweet, and do not rise
The light that shines comes from thine eyes;
The day breaks not, it is my heart
Because that you and I must part.
Stay, or else my joys will die
And perish in their infancy.
John Donne
Y
To meet, to know, to love -- and then
to part, Is the sad tale of many a heart.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Y
I will not let thee go.
I hold thee by too many bands:
Thou sayest farewell, and lo!
I have thee by the hands,
And I will not let thee go.
Robert Bridges - I Will Not Let Thee Go
Y
O tell me once and tell me twice
And tell me thrice to make it plain,
When we who part this weary day,
When we who part shall meet again.
When windflowers blossom on the sea
And fishes skim along the plain
Then we who part this weary day,
Then you and I shall meet again.
Yet tell me once before we part,
Why need we part who part in pain?
If flowers must blossom on the sea,
Why, we shall never meet again.
My cheeks are paler than a rose,
My tears are salter than the main,
My heart is like a lump of ice
If we must never meet again.
Oh weep or laugh, but let me be,
And live or die, for all's in vain;
For life's in vain since we must part,
And parting must not meet again.
'Til windflowers blossom on the sea
And fishes skim along the plain;
Pale rose of roses, let me be,
Your breaking heart breaks mine again.
Christina Rossetti
Y
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever
Ae farewell, an then forever.…
Fare-thee-well, thou first and fairest!
Fare-thee-well, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure
Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure!
Robert Burns - Ae Fond Kiss
Y
I am spending delightful afternoons in my garden, watching everything living around me. As I grow older, I feel everything departing, and I love everything with more passion.
Emile Zola -- in the year of his death.
Y
All the things of my life I loved and kept on loving through parting, and not through meeting, through pulling away, and not through coming together, not unto life but unto death.
Marina Tsvetaeva
Y
I am thankful for my life and all its sweetness; the shadows have gone, and it seems to me now as though all the happiness came from God, and all the shadow was of my own making. And the strangest thought of all is that the darkest shadow has always been this very passing, which now seems to me the most natural thing in the world. None the less am I thankful for this great and crowning gift of love -- the one thing that I had missed. It is there, and that is enough. In her presence it seemed to me that Love stood side by side with Death, two shining sisters.
But yesterday I murmured over having been given, as it were, so sweet a cup to taste, and then having the cup dashed from my lips. Today I see that Love was the crown of my poor life, and I thank God with all the strength of my spirit for putting it into my hand as His last and best gift. And I thanked her too for deigning to love me; and even as I did so, the thought broke to pieces, as it were, and escaped from the feeble words in which I had veiled it. For were we not each other's before the world was made? And the thought of myself and herself fled from me, and we were one spirit, thinking the same thoughts, sustained by the same strength.
One more word I said, that she must live and cast abroad by handfuls the love she would have garnered for me; that the sorrow that lay heavy on her heart must be fruitful, not a devastating sorrow; and that however much alone she might seem, that I should be there, like one who kneels without a closed door -- and so we said farewell.
A C Benson - The House of Quiet
Y
I know well there is no comfort for this pain of parting: the wound always remains, but one learns to bear the pain, and learns to thank God for what He gave, for the beautiful memories of the past, and the yet more beautiful hope for the future.
Max Muller - Life and Letters
