Public-domain source text

O, Sweet Sometime

by Ameen Rihani

From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/ameen-rihani_poetry

O, sweet Sometime, the gardens bloom the while I wait; Each moment melts a tear of joy before thy gate; It is thy pleasure that I burn⁠—it is my fate, O, sweet Sometime!
O, when the moment in this interval is born. When through this sleeping splendor breaks the lingering morn, And when thy sensual silence laughs my noise to scorn⁠— O, sweet Sometime!
Spare me the vacant moment yet⁠—O just awhile; Expectancy, thy sweetest daughter, will beguile My yearning hours; the shades reflected by her smile Are now my haunts, O sweet Sometime.
The waiting while, O sweet Sometime, I can enjoy; Thy heralding shadows every beating pang destroy, And with their breath of musk and myrrh my soul they cloy, O, sweet Sometime!
I tremble, I forget, I throb when once I hear The dying interval announcing thou are near; A touch, a groan, a kiss and thou wilt disappear, With bitten lip, O, sweet Sometime!
And then the memory⁠—O, how it will oppress! Far sweeter is Expectancy⁠—ah, let me press The vigor from her limbs to mine; I’ll yet caress The waiting while, O, sweet Sometime!

Source record

This is a source transcription from Standard Ebooks, published in Past Poetry’s public-domain archive without line-by-line editorial notes. Public-domain source edition. Availability can vary by territory.

View the source edition →