Ashore Poem by Laurence Hope

Out I came from the dancing-place:
The night-wind met me face to face--

A wind off the harbour, cold and keen,
'I know,' it whistled, 'where thou hast been.'

A faint voice fell from the stars above--
'Thou? whom we lighted to shrines of Love!'

I found when I reached my lonely room
A faint sweet scent in the unlit gloom.

And this was the worst of all to bear,
For someone had left while lilac there.

The flower you loved, in times that were.