Anticipation.[1]

"Coming events cast their shadow before."     I had a vision in the summer light -     Sorrow was in it, and my inward sight     Ached with sad images. The touch of tears     Gushed down my cheeks: - the figured woes of years     Casting their shadows across sunny hours.     Oh, there was nothing sorrowful in flowers     Wooing the glances of an April sun,     Or apple blossoms opening one by one     Their crimson bosoms - or the twittered words     And warbled sentences of merry birds; -     Or the small glitter and the humming wings     Of golden flies and many colored things -     Oh, these were nothing sad - nor to see Her,     Sitting beneath the comfortable stir     Of early leaves - casting the playful grace     Of moving shadows in so fair a face -     Nor in her brow serene - nor in the love     Of her mild eyes drinking the light above     With a long thirst - nor in her gentle smile -     Nor in her hand that shone blood-red the while     She raised it in the sun. All these were dear     To heart and eye - but an invisible fear     Shook in the trees and chilled upon the air,     And if one spot was laughing brightest - there     My soul most sank and darkened in despair! -     As if the shadows of a curtained room     Haunted me in the sun - as if the bloom     Of early flow'rets had no sweets for me,     Nor apple blossoms any blush to see -     As if the hour had brought too bright a day -     And little birds were all too gay! - too gay! -     As if the beauty of that Lovely One     Were all a fable. - Full before the sun     Stood Death and cast a shadow long before,     Like a dark pall enshrouding her all o'er,     Till eyes, and lips, and smiles, were all no more!