After Long Years

They told me then that time would heal my heart—

They did not know!

They said the years would help me to forget—

It is not so!

I count the cruel years gone by since you

Left me to mourn,

Each one so full of weary days and hours

That must be born!

And oh, the long long nights, so blessed—or cursed—

With dreams of you,

Dreams that you are not dead—and then, the dawn

That proves it true!

Yes, I have seen the seasons come and go

Each passing year;

Have seen the others at the sports you loved—

And you not here!

The books you loved are round me everywhere—

But you are gone!

And friends come in and out—but when they go,

I am alone!

And only echoes in the empty house,

Where once your voice

Was wont to call—and calling, made

My heart rejoice!

I have lived on—though it still beats, my heart

Has not been cured!

I have not conquered—I have not succumbed—

I have endured!

Oh, they may tell you time will heal the heart—

It is not so!

Ah, let them say the years make one forget—

They do not know!

            Roselle Mercier Montgomery[1] in The Boston Transcript

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[1] These words are on a historical marker located at the corner of Alexander and Commerce Streets in Crawfordville, Georgia:

The renowned Georgia poetess, Roselle Mercier Montgomery, daughter of Col. William Nathaniel and Emma Smith Mercier, was born on this site in 1874. Educated at Washington Female Seminary and Mary Baldwin Seminary, she married distinguished N. Y. lawyer J. Seymour Montgomery and lived in Conn. Her early death in 1933 cut short an outstanding career. Her famous poem Evening on a Village Street was written about this corner in Crawfordsville. Considered Georgia’s best and one of America’s finest poetesses, she is best known for her Ulysses Returns and Helen, Middle-Aged.