Classic Poem

You only promised me a single hour:
But in that hour I journeyed through a year
Of life: the joy of finding you,--the fear
Of losing you again,--the sense of power
To make you all my own,--the sudden shower
Of tears that came because you were more dear
Than words could ever tell you,--then,--the clear
Soft rapture when I plucked love's crimson flower.

An hour,--a year,--I felt your bosom rise
And fall with mystic tides, and saw the gleam
Of undiscovered stars within your eyes,--
A year,--an hour? I knew not, for the stream
Of love had carried me to Paradise,
Where all the forms of Time are like a dream.