Renouncement

by Alice Meynell

I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong,

I shun the thought that lurks in all delight–

The thought of thee–and in the blue heaven’s height,

And in the sweetest passage of a song.

Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng

This breast, the thought of thee waits hidden yet bright;

But it must never, never come in sight;

I must stop short of thee the whole day long.

But when sleep comes to close each difficult day,

When night gives pause to the long watch I keep,

And all my bonds I needs must loose apart,

Must doff my will as raiment laid away,–

With the first dream that comes with the first sleep

I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.

 

 

About This Poem

Alice Meynell’s work was highly esteemed by her contemporaries; it is even said that Dante Gabriel Rossetti knew “Renouncement” by heart.