Come like shadows, so depart!

Come like shadows, so depart!

Follow a shadow, it still flies you,
Seem to fly, it will pursue:
So court a mistress, read more

Follow a shadow, it still flies you,
Seem to fly, it will pursue:
So court a mistress, she denies you;
Let her alone, she will court you.
Say are not women truly, then,
Styled but the shadows of us men?

Shadows are in reality, when the sun is shining, the most
conspicuous thing in a landscape, next to the read more

Shadows are in reality, when the sun is shining, the most
conspicuous thing in a landscape, next to the highest lights.

Even Echo speaks not on these radiant moors.
- Barry Cornwall (pseudonym of Bryan Waller Procter),

Even Echo speaks not on these radiant moors.
- Barry Cornwall (pseudonym of Bryan Waller Procter),

Sweetest Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen
Within thy airy shell,
By slow Meander's margent green,
read more

Sweetest Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen
Within thy airy shell,
By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroidered vale.

Alas! must it ever be so?
Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go,
And read more

Alas! must it ever be so?
Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever?

Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow for ever and for ever.
Blow, bugle, blow, read more

Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow for ever and for ever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

Like Hezekiah's, backward runs
The shadow of my days.

Like Hezekiah's, backward runs
The shadow of my days.

But her voice is still living immortal,
The same you have frequently heard,
In your rambles in read more

But her voice is still living immortal,
The same you have frequently heard,
In your rambles in valleys and forests,
Repeating your ultimate word.