R Bridges read by Classic Poetry Aloud: Giving voice to the poetry of the past.

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Absence

by Robert Bridges (1844–1930)

When my love was away,

Full three days were not sped,

I caught my fancy astray

Thinking if she were dead,

And I alone, alone:

It seem'd in my misery

In all the world was none

Ever so lone as I.

I wept; but it did not shame

Nor comfort my heart: away

I rode as I might, and came

To my love at close of day.

The sight of her still'd my fears,

My fairest-hearted love:

And yet in her eyes were tears:

Which when I question'd of,

'O now thou art come,' she cried,

''Tis fled: but I thought to-day

I never could here abide,

If thou wert longer away.'

First aired: 8 February 2008

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