Let us begin, dear love, where we left off;

Tie up the broken threads of that old dream;

And go on happy as before, and seem

Lovers again, though all the world may scoff.

 

Let us forget the graves, which lie between

Our parting and our meeting, and the tears

That rusted out the goldwork of the years;

The frosts that fell upon our gardens green.

 

Let us forget the cold, malicious Fate

Who made our loving hearts her idle toys,

And once more revel in the old sweet joys

Of happy love. Nay, it is not too late!

 

Forget the deep-ploughed furrows in my brow;

Forget the silver gleaming in my hair;

Look only in my eyes! Oh! darling, there

The old love shone no warmer then than now.

 

Down in the tender depths of thy dear eyes,

I find the lost sweet memory of my youth,

Bright with the holy radiance of thy truth,

And hallowed with the blue of summer skies.

 

Tie up the broken threads, and let us go,

Like reunited lovers, hand in hand,

Back, and yet onward, to the sunny land

Of our To Be, which was our Long Ago.

 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 – 1919)