The Sun Used to Shine

THE sun used to shine while we two walked

Slowly together, paused and started

Again, and sometimes mused, sometimes talked

As either pleased, and cheerfully parted

Each night. We never disagreed

Which gate to rest on. The to be

And the late past we gave small heed.

We turned from men or poetry

To rumours of the war remote

Only till both stood disinclined

For aught but the yellow flavorous coat

Of an apple wasps had undermined;

Or a sentry of dark betonies,

The stateliest of small flowers on earth,

At the forest verge; or crocuses

Pale purple as if they had their birth

In sunless Hades fields. The war

Came back to mind with the moonrise

Which soldiers in the east afar

Beheld then. Nevertheless, our eyes

Could as well imagine the Crusades

Or Caesar's battles. Everything

To faintness like those rumours fades--

Like the brook's water glittering

Under the moonlight--like those walks

Now--like us two that took them, and

The fallen apples, all the talks

And silences--like memory's sand

When the tide covers it late or soon,

And other men through other flowers

In those fields under the same moon

Go talking and have easy hours.