The Poetry Corner

The Mystery Of A Year

By Archibald Lampman

A little while, a year agone, I knew her for a romping child, A dimple and a glance that shone With idle mischief when she smiled. To-day she passed me in the press, And turning with a quick surprise I wondered at her stateliness, I wondered at her altered eyes. To me the street was just the same, The people and the city's stir; But life had kindled into flame, And all the world was changed for her. I watched her in the crowded ways, A noble form, a queenly head, With all the woman in her gaze, The conscious woman in her tread.