Jessie Fauset captures a love that existed almost entirely in a few fleeting moments. The speaker recalls a handful of days filled with life—just a bright smile, hands touching, and one quick kiss. That was all they had, yet it felt immense. Now, years later, the space between them feels empty and deathlike. There is no warm reunion or shared happiness. Instead, both people are left with frozen tears, words they cannot bring themselves to say, and a single sharp cry of pain. The poem’s mood is one of quiet, aching loss. It contrasts the vividness of that brief past with the numb, stifled present. The repetition of “once” matters too: each moment was exceptional and unrepeatable, which deepens the sense of regret, suggesting that some grief isn’t loud—it just sits in the body, preserving fragments of a love that never had time to grow.
Fragment — Summary
The breath of life imbued those few dim days! Yet all we had was this,-- A flashing smile, a touch of hands, and once A fleeting kiss.
Blank futile death inheres these years between! Still naught have you and I But frozen tears, and stifled words, and once A sharp caught cry.