| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| Remember or Forget |
| | | Hamilton Aïdé (b. 1829) |
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| I SAT beside the streamlet, | |
| I watch’d the water flow, | |
| As we together watch’d it | |
| One little year ago: | |
| The soft rain patter’d on the leaves, | 5 |
| The April grass was wet. | |
| Ah! folly to remember; | |
| ’T is wiser to forget. | |
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| The nightingales made vocal | |
| June’s palace pav’d with gold; | 10 |
| I watch’d the rose you gave me | |
| Its warm red heart unfold; | |
| But breath of rose and bird’s song | |
| Were fraught with wild regret. | |
| ’T is madness to remember; | 15 |
| ’T were wisdom to forget. | |
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| I stood among the gold corn, | |
| Alas! no more, I knew, | |
| To gather gleaner’s measure | |
| Of the love that fell from you. | 20 |
| For me, no gracious harvest— | |
| Would God we ne’er had met! | |
| ’T is hard, Love, to remember, but | |
| ’T is harder to forget. | |
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| The streamlet now is frozen, | 25 |
| The nightingales are fled, | |
| The cornfields are deserted, | |
| And every rose is dead. | |
| I sit beside my lonely fire, | |
| And pray for wisdom yet: | 30 |
| For calmness to remember, | |
| Or courage to forget. | |
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