A Highland Regiment/The Last Meeting

AST time you met me shadowed white, A very queen for stateliness, And all the jewels of the night Were tangled in your ivory dress. Your eyes were strange, your lovely smile As though we never met before — I saw you such a little while, Who shall not see you evermore.

God knows the gates were strong between. But still my trumpet might have blown Had you not looked so great a queen. Had I but seen you all alone. But there we sat the dinner through And talked like strangers of the war. I only spoke an hour with you. Who now shall speak with you no more.

Maybe I waited over-long, You spoke no word to tell me so. Perhaps the gates might be too strong For any blast that I could blow Ah well, it hardly matters now, My whispering ghost drifts through the rain, The shroud of death is at my brow, I shall not come to you again.

1915