O, Sweet Sometime

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!