The Pleiades

ST night I saw the Pleiades again,    Faint as a drift of steam      From some tall chimney-stack;  And I remembered you as you were then:    Awoke dead worlds of dream,              And Time turned slowly back.    I saw the Pleiades through branches bare,    And close to mine your face      Soft glowing in the dark;  For Youth and Hope and Love and You were there            At our dear trysting-place      In that bleak London park.    And as we kissed the Pleiades looked down    From their immeasurable      Aloofness in cold Space.          Do you remember how a last leaf brown    Between us flickering fell      Soft on your upturned face?    Last night I saw the Pleiades again,    Here in the alien South,              Where no leaves fade at all;  And I remembered you as you were then,    And felt upon my mouth      Your leaf-light kisses fall!    The Pleiades remember and look down            On me made old with grief,      Who then a young god stood,  When you—now lost and trampled by the Town,    A lone wind-driven leaf,—      Were young and sweet and good!